‘It’s a Disaster’: i residenti della città del Lussemburgo esprimono la frustrazione mentre la convenienza abitativa colpisce il punto di rottura

“affordability”, I would say that availability is the main problem. We are a small landlord and we are following the legal 5% rule. In the past we searched tenants ourselves but last year we switched to using an agency because the amount of applications is just unmanageable. For a single unit we put up online we received over 50 applications. 10 years ago it was like 3-6 applications. Our agent lists the apartments with one room less than they actually have to reduce the amount of applications he has to go through.

Also something in the article I don’t agree with:

> weak tenant protections leave many feeling powerless against landlords

It took us over 2 years, 20.000 Euros and 4 court sessions to get a tenant out of our apartment who wasn’t paying the rent for years. Tenant protections aren’t weak. It’s true that landlord in Luxembourg are greedy and often don’t follow the 5% rule but our problems definitely not come from too little tenant protections. The problem is rather that court cases are super expensive here which means that it’s only affordable for rich people and poor people (because it’s paid for them) but the majority of people who is neither rich nor poor in Luxembourg and therefore have to pay it themselves just can’t afford to enforce the laws.

2000€ for 50qm is ridiculous. 1000€ for 140qm is also ridiculous.

But what I don’t understand: why do most people try to live in the city? It’s so much cheaper if you simply rent a place in a small town in Luxembourg (yes still expensive compared to neighbouring countries but at least affordable). Public transport is reliable and frequent and the roads are good.

Why even bother to live in the city?