At the top of the list are those who own over 50 hectares of building land. In first place is the local real estate company ‘Arend & Fischbach’, owned by Nico Arend and the late Carlo Fischbach. Arend & Fischbach are followed by the municipality of Luxembourg City, the National Housing Fund, the State, and the Giorgetti Group, owned by the family of the same name.
The list continues with companies or public entities that own between 25 and 50 hectares. They include the Kirchberg Fund, the National Affordable Housing Company (SNHBM), Tracol Immobilier, owned by cousins Marco Sgreccia and Fabio Marochi, Stugalux, owned by Jos Bourg, and Promobe, owned by the Becca family.
In recent years, publications by the Housing Observatory and the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) revealed that building land ownership is highly concentrated in Luxembourg. According to these findings, the State, state-owned companies, and municipalities own about 13.5% of the country’s building land, while 55% is in the hands of private individuals. 21% is owned by private companies.
While Luxembourg has been fighting a severe housing crisis for the past decades, the different landowners are accusing each other of being responsible for the lack of new housing. Private landowners and developers are defending themselves against criticism that they are deliberately holding back land to increase its value by blaming lengthy procedures for the excessive construction times. Meanwhile, Minister for Housing Henri Kox has pointed out that many projects could actually be concluded rather quickly, if landowners didn’t refuse to do so.
On Friday, the newspaper ‘Lëtzebuerger Land’ published an article which highlights the role of municipalities, revealing that many municipal officials are sceptical when it comes to growing their municipalities. They are afraid that attracting too many new residents would anger local voters and overwhelm municipal authorities. The article refers to a passage in a report published by the Economic Committee in January, which dealt with the “national emergency” of housing. This passage stresses that the opinion of individual residents should no longer stand in the way of the collective interest of the rest of the population. The ‘Land’ article concludes that the main issue has more to do with clueless municipalities than with private developers.
Upon request by the Left Party (Déi Lénk), MPs will debate the issue of housing during a special session next Wednesday.
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