Luxembourg tells Esch to lift controversial apartment-sharing ban

Esch-sur-Alzette tried to make living in a rented apartment with roommates that are not relatives illegal

Last year, lawmakers in Esch-sur-Alzette – Luxembourg's second-largest city – decided to ban people who are not related, married or in a domestic partnership from living in the same rented apartment. On 4 November, however, the Grand Duchy's government went ahead and repealed the controversial decision. 

They call the phenomenon ‘apartment-sharing’, or living with roommates, and Esch's Mayor Georges Mischo explains that it bars starter families from accessing the rental market as landowners can turn a bigger profit from renting out individual rooms rather than whole apartments.  

The commune of Esch-sur-Alzette, however, includes Belval, where the Grand Duchy’s main university campus is located. Thus, ‘apartment-sharing’ is quite common in the area.

The issue came to light last year when a doctoral student at the University of Luxembourg was told that she could not register at her new address, as she was going to share the apartment with people she was not related to.

Missing the mark on the affordable housing crisis

It is no secret that Luxembourg has an outright hostile housing market, as prices have doubled in the past ten years, and have gone up by an amazing 17% in the last year alone. Over 70,000 people have left the country for neighbouring Belgium, Germany and France, with the latter currently boasting the largest number of people at around 28,000 ‘housing refugees’.

Last year, when Mayor Mischo tried to ban apartment sharing, he explained that it was because landlords were offering individual rooms for rent, rather than entire flats, making the situation even more difficult for local residents, starter families and single-parent households.

This was the issue he was trying to tackle, however, what the controversial policy ended up doing is effectively barring students from accessing housing. Considering the housing circumstances in Luxembourg, ‘apartment-sharing’ is a necessity.

Thankfully, Interior Minister Taina Boffering, who is also from Esch-sur-Alzette vetoed the decision and removed it from the city’s urban plan. Furthermore, currently, there is a large urban development in Belval-Nord that is supposed to provide 70,000 square metres of living space in the district of Esch in the next six years, which could potentially alleviate the situation.