Interview and Editor: Michèle Weber (FNR)

For many young people, moving out is a big step towards adulthood. In Luxembourg, though, that step is getting harder. A report from the Observatoire de l’Habitat (Note 38, October 2024) looked at how residents aged 19 to 35 find their way in the housing market, and how the situation compares to the rest of Europe. Its main message: high rents and high purchase prices make independent living difficult, and they create real inequalities between young adults. We spoke to Magdalena Górczyńska-Angiulli from the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), the Research Scientist who heads the Observatoire de l’Habitat, as well as Constance Uyttebrouck, another researcher at LISER and co-author of the report, about the current situation and possible solutions. 

What is the housing situation for young people in Luxembourg, and how does it compare the rest of Europe? 

Young people in Luxembourg move out of their parents’ home at a similar average age than the EU average: 26.7 in Luxembourg vs 26.3 in EU27. Besides, homeowners outnumber tenants at the average age of 34 across the country, but big differences exist depending on where you live: 28 in rural areas vs 44 to 50 in the capital. 

Internationally, these trends can be situated by examining Eurostat statistics. Over the past decade, the share of homeowners among the 25-34 age group has visibly declined in Luxembourg (see Figure 1). This decrease appears to be considerably more pronounced than among other age groups, although it may be partly attributable to breaks in the time series. However, the trend could also reflect aggravated access to mortgage financing , i.e. stricter bank requirements with respect to upfront capital and increase in interest rates. This severely affects younger households, among which many are first-time home buyers, with typically lower income and less wealth than older age groups, making their path to homeownership steeper. 

Figure 1 – Distribution of the population in owner-occupied households by age group in Luxembourg. In 2025, 47.3% of people aged 25 to 34 lived in owner-occupied households, and 78.9% of people aged 65 and older lived in owner-occupied households.Note: Be careful when interpreting the results, particularly for the 18–24 age group. People aged 18 to 24 very often still live with their parents, so in the statistics, it is their parents’ housing status that is reported. Source : https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_lvps05__custom_23109761/default/table [12.10.2026]

When compared with the EU average, the share of homeowners among the 25-34 age group has remained much more stable over time and oscillating around 55%. A similarly stable pattern can be observed in Luxembourg’s three neighbouring countries, even though the share of young homeowners (25-34) varies considerably across these countries, ranging from approximately 25% in Germany to over 60% in Belgium, which is associated with different housing regimes and prevailing housing tenure in each country.

Figure 2 – Distribution of the population in owner-occupied households by age group in the EU (27 countries as of 2020). Source : https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_lvps05__custom_23109761/default/table [12.10.2026]

Because of growing difficulties in entering housing markets independently, research has shown similar trends internationally regarding young people staying with their parents or returning to the parental home after living independently. In Luxembourg, 45% of 19 to 27-year-olds live with their parents; 40% of these are working. The question arises as to whether these young adults having an employment chose to live with their parents, or whether they were constrained to do so due to difficulties to access independent accommodation. If this choice is constrained, it could be due to their individual economic situation, which puts them at a disadvantage on the housing market (low salary, fixed-term contract or lack of savings).

Finally, an increasing number of households are in rental stress in tense housing markets. Luxembourg is no exception, and young people are particularly affected by this: 36.7% of 19- to 35-year-olds spend at least 41% of their disposable income on housing, knowing that a household is considered under rental stress when the share of its disposable income spent on housing exceeds 30%. That is the case for about 35% of private tenants and 42.1% of young owners. These shares are higher than for other age cohorts, but it might be also linked to the fact that young adults’ earning are lower (since they are still at the beginning of their professional careers) than those of more senior employees, which by default contributes to higher level of affordability indicator for young adults.

How satisfied or dissatisfied are young adults with their housing situation? 

60% of 19- to 35-year-olds paying a normal market rent say they are dissatisfied with their housing situation, meaning they are dissatisfied with their tenure status. Among young homeowners, almost all (97.9%) are satisfied – despite spending a similar percentage of their household income on a mortgage than tenants are on rent.

51.5%  expect to move within three years; yet, 12.1% say they simply cannot. Of these, 80.7% say they lack the money to sign a new rental contract in Luxembourg, and 74.3% say they cannot afford to buy.

What role does the family background play for becoming a home owner? 

Consistently with international trends showing growing inequality within younger generations related to intergenerational support, family background matters in Luxembourg: one third (32.8%) of young homeowners in Luxembourg received money from family or others to pay the initial deposit. Of these, more than half are of European nationality, with 40% Luxembourgish and only 8% Portguese. Our report further shows fragmented access to homeownership depending on the migration background: 45.2% of young Luxembourg nationals with at least one parent born in Luxembourg own their home, compared with only 7.5% of young non-EU adults whose parents were born abroad. So Luxembourg’s housing crisis is also becoming a question of generations and fairness, tightly intertwined with intergenerational support.

What measures do already exist to specifically help young adults? 

Luxembourg already offers affordable housing, rent subsidies, interest subsidies and the Bëllegen Akt tax credit. Still, young adults can fall through the cracks, because these schemes were not designed around the step from the parental home to a first home of one’s own.

What more could be done for young adults? 

Better informing young adults about the different forms of support they are eligible to: 58% of 19- to 27-year-olds and 56% of 28- to 35-year-olds do not know which housing benefits they may be entitled to, so some who qualify do not claim rent subsidies.

Luxembourg could supplement with more targeted measures, that specifically help young adults step onto the housing market. But simply subsidising home buying may mostly benefit young people who already have family money, and rent subsidies can push rents up if there are not enough homes. To avoid this risk, public housing providers could develop a program specifically for young adults in both the rental and homeownership sectors, as is the case, for example, in Germany and the Netherlands. Nevertheless, the potential transferability of such initiatives must take into account the specific characteristics of Luxembourg’s housing regime.

Young people demonstrating in Luxembourg City describe housing as a crisis requiring emergency action. Does the evidence support treating it as an official crisis?

Different reports of the Housing Observatory clearly highlight a number of structural housing challenges that have been accumulating over the years. While some of them could potentially be solved quicker if they are given a special attention and political priority, it is equally important to think of long-term solutions addressing structural issues of the Luxembourg housing regime. Namely, housing supply has been lagging the demand over the past years, and addressing this structural issue requires long-term actions.

What practical difference would that status make?

Declaring an official state of crisis entails the possibility of introducing exceptional measures, mobilising extraordinary funding or accelerating administrative procedures to address an urgent situation. Recognising a structural housing crisis allows for long-term action. From the research perspective, one of the key points should be to improve our knowledge of the housing stock – the RENLA register was a big step forward but still we need a better and more comprehensive information about housing in general, e.g. via national register of dwellings and buildings and the register of rental contracts. That is a starting point to deal with a number of housing challenges, including vacant housing or the development of a rent cadastre. If declaring the state of crisis would help to accelerate in this area, it would surely be a major step forward.

Other aspects, such as the reform of rent regulation, require a different approach. Even though we all agree that it is indispensable, it is a particularly complex issue that requires thorough analysis of its potential implications in order to avoid potential adverse effects in the enforcement phase. We addressed this in a recent policy brief.  

Which demands from young protesters are most strongly supported by (your) research?

The demands put forward by the Kollektiv Logementskris are very broad and concern different dimensions of the housing crisis in Luxembourg, showing the need to take action across several areas and from different perspectives in a coordinated manner. This view is also clearly shared by residents in Luxembourg, as shown in our Note 42, which examines the preferences for different housing policy orientations. There is a strong support for an increase in affordable housing provision by public developers, reinforced rent regulation and increased involvement of the private market in affordable housing provision. Moreover, residents express strong support to alternative solutions, even though they remain relatively less known and underdeveloped in Luxembourg, such as targeted support to collaborative housing initiatives.

More specifically, in 2026, the Housing Observatory published a series of reports contributing to the debate on the rent regulation reform in Luxembourg and showing, among others, strong differences between rents in long-term leases and those in newly concluded contracts (Rapport d’analyse 24, 2026), as well as significant advertised rent increase within the last 12 months (Le logement et chiffres, 20, 2026). These findings show inefficiency in the current rent regulation system which calls for change.

Finally, our research has also highlighted poor housing conditions and high housing costs, particularly among tenants and low-income households (Note 34, Note 44), as well as weak knowledge of housing conditions in informal room rentals (Note 47). These findings are clearly aligned with formulated demands for stronger protection of households’ purchasing power / financial stability and more effective action against substandard housing.

If the government could introduce one measure offering meaningful relief to young adults within the next 12 months, what should it be, and why?

12 months is a very short timeline to introduce completely new measures but at least reinforcing some existing tools could be possible. For example, the Kollektiv’s request to increase the eligible age for prime locative or broader availability of rent subsidy, including students, might be possible in such a short timeline. Reinforcing and upscaling the Jugendwunnen instrument to support access to independent accommodation is undoubtedly worth supporting. Finally, it might be also investigated to what extent young adults could be considered a priority population in affordable housing allocation process as it has been done with single-parent households, whose status became a formal allocation criterion (October 2026).

What further research is needed?

At the housing observatory, we strive to pay more attention to growing trends in sharing housing, students’ and young people’s housing pathways, discrimination in the rental market, and moves across Luxembourg’s borders.