Trade sector · August 2026
Below-average density and tangible market movement — a favourable combination. Density, 16-month trend and market movement for every federal state and 23 Vienna districts — recomputed monthly.
Active locations in Vienna
Shortest path to a decision: the three districts with the lowest number of Gas- und Sanitärtechnik businesses per 10,000 inhabitants — on paper the largest market gaps in Vienna (for population ≥ 20,000).
Note: low density is a signal, not a guarantee. Combine it with the market movement above and the OSM visibility below before you commit.
The stock is holding steady since May 2025 (post-break baseline) — under 2 % net change. That does not automatically mean “no interest”: if market movement (churn index) is high at the same time, there is active turnover within an overall stable count.
Method change May 2025. Before May 2025 the figures come from the annual report (reference-date based), from May 2025 on from the monthly OgdAufrechteGewerbeberechtigung snapshots. The two sources count slightly differently — hence the visible break between April and May 2025. For the churn indicator we use only the clean May-2025-plus window, so the calculation is not distorted by the method jump.
Seasonal fluctuations. Smaller month-to-month movements are normal — trade licences are issued in bursts (month turns, quarter ends) and deregistered (often at year ends). A single month at +5 or −3 is not a trend break.
What a line does not show. The stock is a stock, not a flow. 500 active trade licences at a steady monthly stock can mean: (a) 500 dormant businesses with no movement, or (b) 480 stable plus 20 deregistering this month and 20 newly registering. The churn indicator measures exactly that difference — the curve does not show it.
Why we don't go back further. The GISA dataset only exists in structured form from 2018, before that only as non-anonymised internal data. Annual reports from 2019 could theoretically be integrated — that is a planned expansion. Currently: monthly snapshots since March 2025.
Context
Gas and plumbing technology is a regulated trade under GewO 1994 § 94. Proof of qualification is provided via the master craftsman examination or completion of an HTL in a relevant discipline plus two years of practical experience. The gas sector is additionally regulated strictly by the Gas-Sicherheits-Verordnung — customers must have work carried out by a certified gas installer, or they risk losing their insurance cover.
In Vienna there are around 1,200 active trade licences, and roughly 6,100 across Austria. The market is structurally tight: the shortage of skilled workers keeps order books full, and many businesses no longer take on new customers. The energy transition (heat-pump conversions, photovoltaic hot water, phasing out gas) is currently shifting a substantial share of demand — classic gas installation is shrinking, while heat-pump installation is booming.
Autumn (September to November) is the peak for heating maintenance and conversions — often with months of waiting time. Winter is emergency-repair season (frost damage, boiler failures). Summer is a relative lull — a good time for acquiring new customers and preventive maintenance contracts, which are then worked through in autumn.
Anyone offering gas and plumbing services will be called 24/7 for broken boilers, burst pipes, or leaking gas connections. Communicate clear emergency-service rates up front (often 200-400 € call-out fee plus a weekend/night surcharge). Without a defined emergency-service policy, running the business drowns out your private life.
Gas installation is not certified uniformly — some manufacturers (Viessmann, Vaillant, Junkers) require product-specific certification of their technicians for warranty work. Without manufacturer training there is no factory warranty, and that costs you customers. Budget for ongoing training.
Faulty gas installation can lead to personal injury (carbon monoxide poisoning, explosion). Criminal responsibility extends as far as negligent homicide. Regular tightness tests in accordance with ÖVGW G1 and complete documentation are not bureaucratic overhead but protection of your livelihood.
Regulated trade under GewO 1994 § 94 + Gas-Sicherheits-Verordnung. Gewerbeschlüssel 2501. Standards: ÖVGW G1 (gas installation), ÖNORM B 2531 (plumbing installation).
Insider analysis · Vienna
The typical active business in Vienna is 10 years old (median). 21 % are younger than 3 years, 30 % older than 20 years. Dominant legal form: 58.5 % registered companies.
Distribution of age in years across all 1,210 active locations. Median 10 years · P10–P90 1–36 years.
Bars = number of businesses per age-year bucket. Highlighted bar = median age. Small buckets under 5 businesses are suppressed as "·" (GDPR minimum cell size against re-identification).
When were the currently active businesses founded?
Solo (natural person) vs. registered company (GmbH, OG, KG, AG).
The higher the Gini index, the more the sector concentrates in a few postal-code areas. 0 = evenly distributed, 1 = everything in a single postal-code area. Vienna has 23 districts, which split into several postal-code areas.
Complementary signal
Our data shows how many businesses exist. Google Trends adds how often people search for “Installateur” — the demand side. Together you see whether a market is constrained by supply or by demand.
Google Trends is a free third-party tool. We store nothing and pass no data on — the link opens directly on trends.google.com in a new tab.
Each dot is a trade sector. Left = lower density per 10,000 residents, top = more movement (registrations and deregistrations over the last 15 months).
Density per 10,000 inhabitants plus market dynamics over the last 15 months. Sorted by density, descending.
| Federal state | Locations | per 10k | Density | Market dynamics | net 11 mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burgenland → | 260 | 8.6 | Very tight | Shrinking, volatile | -3.4 % |
| Salzburg → | 445 | 7.8 | Very tight | Active market | +0.2 % |
| Niederösterreich → | 1,308 | 7.6 | Getting tight | Active market | +1.2 % |
| Kärnten → | 413 | 7.2 | Getting tight | Growing, volatile | +4.3 % |
| Tirol → | 529 | 6.8 | Some room | Growing, volatile | +3.1 % |
| Steiermark → | 789 | 6.2 | Some room | Active market | -0.5 % |
| Wien(here) | 1,210 | 5.9 | Room to grow | Active market | +0.4 % |
| Vorarlberg → | 241 | 5.8 | Room to grow | Growing, volatile | +3.4 % |
| Oberösterreich → | 876 | 5.7 | Room to grow | Active market | +0.3 % |
Sorted by Gas- und Sanitärtechnik density per 10,000 inhabitants, descending. “Licensed” = GISA trade licences, “OSM” = shop addresses visible in OpenStreetMap, “since May 25” = district net delta post method break (clean signal, without the May-2025 jump).
| Postcode | District | Lic. | OSM | Inh. | per 10k | Density | since May 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1010 | Innere Stadt | 24 | 0 | 15,879 | 15.1 | Very tight | falling -7.7 % |
| 1170 | Hernals | 48 | 4 | 56,652 | 8.5 | Very tight | falling -4.0 % |
| 1230 | Liesing | 104 | 5 | 124,846 | 8.3 | Very tight | rising +2.0 % |
| 1150 | Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus | 61 | 2 | 75,384 | 8.1 | Very tight | falling -10.3 % |
| 1060 | Mariahilf | 24 | 3 | 31,070 | 7.7 | Very tight | falling -7.7 % |
| 1030 | Landstraße | 70 | 3 | 99,954 | 7.0 | Getting tight | rising +4.5 % |
| 1050 | Margareten | 37 | 3 | 54,060 | 6.8 | Getting tight | rising +8.8 % |
| 1140 | Penzing | 68 | 6 | 99,469 | 6.8 | Getting tight | rising +6.3 % |
| 1160 | Ottakring | 68 | 1 | 101,599 | 6.7 | Getting tight | falling -6.8 % |
| 1200 | Brigittenau | 54 | 1 | 86,686 | 6.2 | Getting tight | rising +12.5 % |
| 1090 | Alsergrund | 26 | 1 | 41,782 | 6.2 | Getting tight | rising +4.0 % |
| 1180 | Währing | 31 | 2 | 51,177 | 6.1 | Some room | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1020 | Leopoldstadt | 68 | 5 | 114,122 | 6.0 | Some room | rising +7.9 % |
| 1120 | Meidling | 59 | 1 | 102,344 | 5.8 | Some room | falling -6.3 % |
| 1210 | Floridsdorf | 108 | 4 | 191,527 | 5.6 | Some room | rising +4.9 % |
| 1040 | Wieden | 18 | 2 | 33,450 | 5.4 | Some room | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1070 | Neubau | 16 | 3 | 31,394 | 5.1 | Some room | falling -11.1 % |
| 1190 | Döbling | 38 | 2 | 76,203 | 5.0 | Room to grow | falling -5.0 % |
| 1110 | Simmering | 55 | 1 | 112,214 | 4.9 | Room to grow | falling -3.5 % |
| 1100 | Favoriten | 110 | 4 | 225,013 | 4.9 | Room to grow | rising +1.9 % |
| 1220 | Donaustadt | 93 | 8 | 235,361 | 4.0 | Room to grow | rising +1.1 % |
| 1130 | Hietzing | 22 | 0 | 56,496 | 3.9 | Room to grow | rising +10.0 % |
| 1080 | Josefstadt | 8 | 1 | 24,232 | 3.3 | Room to grow | falling -11.1 % |
Lic. vs. OSM: GISA also counts mobile or home-based businesses without a shop; OSM shows only those with a visible address. Vienna total: 1,210 licensed vs. ~186 in OSM (62 with postcode, 124 without).
Quick answers to the typical questions about Gas- und Sanitärtechnik in Austria.
Free · no account
Everything on this page — density, trend, market movement, demographics, districts — is calculated from open data and stays freely accessible. No account, no paywall, no tracking. The figures are recomputed every month from the GISA snapshot; the method is written down, and so are its limits.