Home prices outside capital outpaced Luxembourg’s centre for first time

More people having the opportunity to work from home during the pandemic led home prices outside of Luxembourg City and its surroundings to outstrip growth in the capital, real estate company atHome said on Thursday.

For the first time, prices for houses and apartments rose faster in Luxembourg’s more rural regions during the first three months of this year than in the country's Centre, where costs increased by 5.2% year on year, atHome said in a press release. Home prices in the Centre skyrocketed by 11.5% in the first trimester of 2020, the company said.

In comparison, homes became 13.5% more expensive in Luxembourg's East, 11.7% higher in the West and 11.5% costlier in the North during the quarter - similar to their growth rate during the same period last year, the company's analysis found.

Prices for houses and flats rose by a record 14.5% on average across Luxembourg during 2020, national statistics agency Statec reported.

Luxembourg’s exploding home prices are leaving many families behind as the average household spends 35% of its income on shelter, a lobby group for employees said on Wednesday.

“Everything suggests that the trend of social inequalities rising has been confirmed and that some groups are more heavily affected”, Chambre des Salariés Vice President Jean-Claude Reding said. 

Single-parent families and couples with more than three children are at particular risk of falling into poverty, the lobby group said.

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