RTL Today - National Affordable Housing Company report 2022: "No projects are delayed, even in the absence of clients"

The National Affordable Housing Company (SNHBM) plans to invest in rental properties, aiming to make around 40% of units available for rent.

For many years, the SNHBM had just 200 apartments available in its own rental area. Now, this number has increased to almost 500, and is expected to increase by a further 200 units soon, said director Guy Entringer.

By 2022, the SNHBM had over 1,000 units under construction, with work progressing in 17 different locations throughout the Grand Duchy. Last year, 289 were completed, with 202 put up for sale, 71 made available for rent, and 16 set aside for a municipality.

Single-family houses are not selling

Despite this, times are difficult for the company. "There are also delays at our construction sites," said president Annick Rock on Thursday. Meanwhile, housing prices continue to rise. However, the SNHBM has fixed prices, to stop additional costs appearing for clients throughout the construction period.

The company could not give further details on the delays and did not comment on which builds were affected, as the housing ministry is expected to communicate these in due course.

D'Annick Rock, Presidentin vun der SNHBM. / © Didier Weber / RTL

The SNHBM noted it had become increasingly difficult to find people interested in purchasing a property with an emphyteutic lease, due to the general price hikes and rising interest rates. "We are getting to the point where we have housing we cannot sell," summarised Entringer.

The price per square metre reached around €4,200 this year, far below the market rate. However, projects under construction, such as the Nonnewisen district in Esch-sur-Alzette, are already reaching €5,000 per square metre.

For the SNHBM, the difficulty in finding customers is a new one. The company is trying to make its properties as affordable as possible, but the current economic situation is forcing customers to drop out as they cannot get financial approval.

However, Entringer says the company will not back out of any projects, even with the sale difficulties. The SNHBM will continue to make housing available as soon as possible. All unsold units - a number of single-family homes in Belvaux and Elmen - will be made visible on the company's websites in the hopes that interested buyers will come forward.

The company has also issued a demand to the government to discuss the housing laws currently underway in the Chamber before the summer recess.