At the end of July, RTL spoke to several buyers in Oberkorn after construction ground to a halt on the ‘Ouschterbuer’ development. The developer failed to pay the project’s construction partners, which cascaded into building site delays, which has now left buyers in financial straits. Capelli, a property developer based in France, promised to address the issue, but - three months on - the situation has barely changed. Moreover, ‘Ouschterbuer’ is far from being the only building site in Luxembourg to experience such issues.
At Bettange-sur-Mess, an eight-home development on Rue an der Messer, managed by the same developers, construction has been interrupted three times since the project launched. One owner, Thomas Hein, told RTL that he and his wife had signed a contract in 2019 and were given an initial move-in date of October 2022, yet - 12 months later - they are still waiting for their new home to be completed. No reasons have been given to owners for the repeated delays. Hein and his family will have to leave their rented accommodation on 1 December, with no definite idea of when their new home will be ready for them.
Two weeks ago, the owners held a meeting with Capelli, in which it was explained to them that the company had been waiting for money to be released from abroad. As a result, deposits from seven buyers had been put towards building an eighth house.
“In fact, this lot had not been sold, and this is a huge issue because Capelli have used buyers’ money for other houses,” said one owner. “In legal terms, I couldn’t tell you if it’s legal or not, but when I am giving money to a developer I expect them to use it for my own purchase.”
The meeting at Capelli headquarters in Hollerich was also attended by buyers from the Oberkorn development. Although the developer initially promised to negotiate with construction companies at the end of July, with a view to relaunching the build, nothing has happened to date.
The aggrieved owners still don’t understand why the developer’s communication has deteriorated to such an extent, and they feel abandoned by the authorities. One buyer, Jeff Wagner, said “We contacted the municipal council but they didn’t even reply. The Ministry of Housing has passed the complaint on to the Ministry of Consumer Protection, but we’ve not heard back. We really feel as if we’ve been left in the lurch on all sides.”
RTL contacted Capelli on behalf of the buyers, and received a response on Friday morning, in which the French developers confirmed the Oberkorn building site would restart on Monday, while the Bettange-sur-Mess project was due to recommence over the next three weeks. Capelli said they used the same builders for both sites and the workers had been deployed to other projects, in Pontpierre for example, which partly explained their absence.
Homeowners’ frustration over newbuild construction standstill 26.7.2023
