Luxembourg taxes gains on private property by holding period. Your main residence is exempt. Sell within five years and the gain is ordinary income; sell later and it is halved, with a €50,000 allowance every ten years.
Luxembourg has unveiled seven measures to restart residential construction, including €300 million for state purchases, higher buyer support and new tax incentives. Most elements still require legislation and will be monitored for price effects.
Luxembourg's government has presented a single national building regulation to replace the roughly 100 separate codes its communes each maintain. The rulebook, due in force on 1 January 2028, standardises construction requirements and aims to shorten planning procedures by months, part of a wider push to build more housing faster.
Renting in Luxembourg means competing in one of Europe's most expensive, supply-starved markets. This guide walks you through the main portals (atHome.lu, Immotop.lu, Wortimmo), agencies and expat networks, realistic rents in Luxembourg City versus the rest of the country, the agency fee (now split 50/50), the dossier landlords expect, the lease and the two-month deposit cap, plus the cross-border option.
Luxembourg ranks among Europe's most expensive countries, driven overwhelmingly by housing. A one-bedroom flat in Luxembourg City rents for roughly €1,966 a month (Numbeo, May 2026). A single person can expect about €2,700-3,300 a month including rent; a family needs more. Free public transport, high salaries and an indexed minimum wage of €2,703.74 gross partly offset the cost. This explainer breaks down rent, groceries, transport, childcare and health.
Luxembourg's "TVA logement" scheme cuts VAT to a super-reduced 3% (instead of the 17% standard rate) on building or renovating a dwelling used as a principal residence. The benefit is capped at €50,000 of VAT per dwelling. Claim it by direct application (the contractor invoices at 3% after AED approval) or by reimbursement of the difference afterwards via the AED. The home must be a main residence for at least two years. Separate from the Bëllegen Akt purchase credit.
Fondation IDEA, the think-tank created by Luxembourg's Chamber of Commerce, argues the housing shortage should no longer be called a "crisis." In Décryptage No. 54, economist Michel-Edouard Ruben calls it a "perma-crisis" — an "established disorder" of scarce supply and high prices. IDEA has pressed four structural fixes as completions lag the government's 6,000-homes-a-year target.
Minimum-wage workers in Luxembourg are increasingly seeking help because private rents and landlord screening leave single-parent households with few realistic options. Housing Minister Claude Meisch says rent-subsidy awareness, more automatic aid and additional state purchases are now part of the response.
Luxembourg’s housing crisis will not be solved by helping buyers bid more for scarce homes. A serious policy has to mobilise land, tax non-use and make planning faster enough to matter.
Luxembourg's CSV-DP coalition presented a €30 billion budget on Monday that indexes tax brackets, cuts the surcharge, and pours €1.4 billion into housing — at the cost of a wider deficit through 2028.
Moving to Luxembourg in 2026 requires more than comparing salaries. New arrivals need to understand immigration status, a tight housing market, labour-market trends and 2026 tax-social changes.
Luxembourg will introduce RENLA, a national affordable-housing register via MyGuichet, while also clarifying rent subsidies and individual housing aid rules.
STATEC's Q3 housing index shows apartment prices rising for the first time in six quarters, even as transaction volumes remain depressed.
On 10 May 2026 the city of Dudelange and the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) presented the city's first Observatoire social, mapping income, poverty risk and housing pressure quartier by quartier. The data confirm pronounced inequalities between districts of Luxembourg's fourth-largest commune.
Luxembourg's flagship registration-duty credit for primary-residence buyers remains in force in 2026, after the broader package of housing-crisis tax reliefs ended in mid-2025.
Average residential rent reached €31.09/m²/month in April 2026 — a 6.47% rise on the year. Sale prices held at €8,151/m², a slight 0.32% decline, in a market that is stabilising at a high level.
A March 2026 IDEA Foundation report argues the country's structural housing imbalance is now embedded. The government's response includes a new RENLA registration system and a multi-year affordable housing fund.
The 3.5% reduced registration duty, 6% accelerated depreciation and capital-gains relief introduced during the housing crisis expired on 30 June 2025. The next phase is administrative reform.