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Austria's former chancellor has said it will be "challenging" to form another coalition after the country's election but has not ruled out another pact with the far-right Freedom Party.

Sebastian Kurz's conservative People's Party topped Sunday's vote with 37.1% and he is sticking by his pledge to speak to all rivals.

"Of course we will seek talks with all parties and try to determine which parties there's overlap with, which parties a stable government can be formed with," he told public broadcaster ORF.

The election was held after the government collapsed in May in the wake of a video sting, filmed in Ibiza, that showed the Freedom Party's former leader offering favours to a purported Russian investor.

Voters punished the party for the scandal and it slumped to third place - taking just 16% of the vote - and its new leader has indicated that it intends to move into opposition to rebuild after the scandal.

The most realistic option for Mr Kurz, 33, appears to be a tie-up with the second-placed Social Democrats, whose share fell to 21.7%, or with the Greens - who made significant gains and polled 14%.

"I fear [coalition talks] will be a little bit more challenging this time," said Mr Kurz.

The former chancellor's appeared to have emerged unscathed from its coalition with the far-right party and now has its biggest lead over the second-placed Social Democrats in the post-war era.

Mr Kurz said Austria's new government must focus on the economic prosperity of its 8.8 million citizens.

"We are just now seeing very negative economic developments in Germany, we have not solved Brexit, we have tensions in trade ties with the United States," he said.

"The challenge for us will be securing good economic growth in the future as well and doing our utmost to keep unemployment in Austria from rising again. This is going to be a challenging phase."