The minister admits that currently all of the student housing apartments are occupied. This is not particularly surprising, as available housing units can currently only house one sixth (1/6) of the student population.
However, the minister insists that with this capacity of provided units, the University of Luxembourg “is at an international average”. Uni.lu currently has 990 apartments inside 31 buildings, but this number is slowly decreasing.
In 2018, the university had 1091 apartments at the disposal of its students, notably 101 more units than are available right now. The number of available rooms has also decreased, falling from 19,9% in 2018 to 16,2% during the 2012-2022 school year. The European average is measured at 18%.
If demand is increasing why is the number of accessible housing units going down?
Henri Kox explains: “The reason for the decrease is the temporary closure of the large residence “Les Dominicaines” in Luxembourg city”. This residence had to close for sanitary reasons. “The calls for tenders are in preparation and re-opening is planned for 2024.”, the minister stated.
These past few months, other smaller residencies managed by the university also had to close. “Some were closed for security reasons”, others were given back to property owners as “they wish to use them for other purposes.”
Thus it seems the student housing issues will not be fixed in a near future. There are no other buildings set to open before 2027, but one example of these projects would the “Porte de France” residence, set to be built in Esch-Belval.
However, the minister wants to reassure people that discussions with the CFL are on their way to build a residence with 124 unities in the centre of Esch-sur-Alzette. Other units could become available closer to the Kirchberg campus.
