'The goal is to create more equality and mobilise more housing space'

After 80 years, the property tax is to be adapted - a long-awaited reform.

The tax is bound to a series of criteria: the terrain size, what building potential is included in the zoning plan, the distance to Luxembourg City, whether services and commerce is available in the village, and how market prices develop.

Main residences are eligible for a tax reduction to prevent a skyrocketing of tax in the future. Moreover, property tax on undeveloped plots is to be removed, and whilst municipalities continue to determine the tax rate themselves, this is limited to a range between 9 and 11 per cent. 
You can calculate how much tax you have to pay after the reform using this simulator.

The reform also foresees a speculation tax. Should you have done nothing with your terrain after five years, 75 per cent of the property tax has to be paid, which increases with each subsequent year.

Tax on uninhabited residences will also be reformed. Paying tax on these used to be voluntary, but will become mandatory in the future. If your property remains uninhabited after six months, you must pay 3,000 euros a year. This rate increases each year by 900 euros, up to a maximum of 7,500 euros. In addition, a national register will be drawn up to seize uninhabited property.

The government stresses that the goal of this reform is not to create more income, but to create more equality and mobilise more housing space.