At Thursday's housing meeting in Senningen, the Prime Minister and other authorities discussed solutions for Luxembourg's housing problem.

At the subsequent press briefing, Luc Frieden said the meeting tackled the issue of how to build more properties, as quickly and as densely as possible.

As for environmental and nature conservation on construction sites, these protections should be proportional and should not exceed regulations set by EU directives.

Frieden said that immediate changes to improve the construction sector and housing market would be put into proposals for the government council over the coming weeks. The PM also explained an additional point of discussion at Thursday's press conference:

"We have also opened a dialogue with banks to see whether the banking sector can intervene earlier with these projects. We have discussed a number of issues, for example, the rule set by banks that a new-build residence must be financed by 80% before the banks will agree to co-finance it."

One option here would be to reduce the percentage to 60 or 70%. The government could, in certain cases, make a purchase commitment, to ensure projects come to fruition, thereby creating new housing more quickly.

In order to expand the amount of available affordable housing, Frieden announced the government intended to continue buying up planned projects which have not sold. Ministers are set to approve projects for a total value of 100 million euros this week, which should result in around 170 new apartments.