The situation on Luxembourg’s housing market is currently rather tense. Prices are increasing and it is becoming more difficult to obtain a loan. “Fewer and fewer people will be able to afford a home in the future,” according to Jean-Paul Scheuren. Scheuren is the President of the Chamber of Real Estate, a federation of estate agents, property managers, and developers.

In Luxembourg, more than 70% of residents are homeowners. While Scheuren agrees that everyone should be able to find decent housing that meets their needs, the President of the Chamber of Real Estate questions whether everyone should be a homeowner. According to Scheuren, the rental market “has been entirely neglected”. While the focus has been on building more social housing, renting is still too expensive for the middle classes to save money at the same time, the President of the Chamber of Real Estate criticised.

Construction costs are skyrocketing, and” neither the building materials, nor the craftspeople can keep up,” Scheuren stated, adding that “artisans are overwhelmed, everything is happening all at once”. The state and the private sector are both investing. According to the President of the Chamber of Real Estate, it may be essential in the future to develop in a “more industrial, pre-fabricated style to save time and effort.”

At the moment, prices on the real estate market “have calmed down,” and the number of transactions has gone down. There is a risk that developers may have to do a pre-sale, before a bank will lend money. Alternatively, they may wait, but that could lead to a situation where market pressure just keeps increasing, according to Scheuren.

The President of the Chamber of Real Estate once again bemoaned the fact that private companies are unable to participate in the construction of affordable housing. To build more, the private and public sectors should work together more effectively. In fact, Scheuren explained that he personally considers a house built by a public housing company – which cannot be sold with a surplus value – as “not very desirable,” despite a lower purchasing price. For Scheuren, this type of house is more like a “long-term rental” than a true property.