Jean-Paul Scheuren of the Real-Estate Chamber explained during a press conference that there is a crisis of trust in the real-estate sector, which must be finally addressed with measures that reflect the demographic reality of the country.

Luxembourg's tense housing market has been facing a downturn in recent years due to multiple national and international factors. The government has sought to counteract this looming crisis in the housing market with various measures such as increasing affordable housing, simplifying permit approvals, and encouraging sustainable development.

Against this backdrop, Jean-Paul Scheuren of the Real-Estate Chamber provided a mixed account of the impact of these measures during a press conference organised by the Chamber of Skilled Trades and Craft on Tuesday.

According to numbers provided by Scheuren, 60% of households in Luxembourg consist of one single person. Despite this fact, the entirety of urban planning in Luxembourg and a whole array of measures are oriented towards families, he stated. Given this situation, Scheuren calls for a reorientation of measures that responds to the demographic reality of the country.

In addition to these remarks on urban planning, the Real-Estate Chamber calculated the affordability of housing for a single person with the interest subsidy for mortgage included, concluding that it was not affordable for a single person. In this context, Scheuren stressed the importance of changing the necessary threshold for the measures to have an effect, calling for a better adjustment of revenue of single-person households.

Nevertheless, the problem of supply in Luxembourg has to be added to the list of issues affecting the housing market. Scheuren mentions the housing roundtable that took place eight months ago between the government and the real-estate sector, in which they reached an agreement to increase affordable housing through public-private partnerships on private plots. However, Scheuren expressed regret over the delay in planning and implementation of the programme, which was supposed to be announced in February.

Finally, Scheuren emphasised that private developers can build more and faster than public developers, explaining that the plan is to develop 500 to 1000 housing units per year for renting. With only 2% of affordable housing in Luxembourg, Scheuren concludes that they are "way behind".