Housing, cost of living main concerns in Luxembourg
The lack of affordable housing and the worsening cost of living crisis are the two most pressing issues for people living in Luxembourg, residents said in a EU Commission survey published on Monday.
Over half of respondents said housing was their primary concern, making it the single biggest issue in the country, the survey showed. An 80 square metre flat cost buyers close to €700,000 at the end of 2021, roughly double the price at the start of 2013, putting Luxembourg among the most expensive housing markets in Europe.
While housing is the most pressing issue for 54% of respondents in Luxembourg, only 9% of people across the EU who answered the bloc-wide survey said it was their main concern.
The cost of living crisis came second in the Grand Duchy, with 50% saying it was an issue, an increase of 19 percentage points compared to the summer of 2021. That concern is also shared across the EU as 41% of respondents cited high inflation as a pressing issue.
People in Luxembourg were interviewed between 18 January and 3 February - three weeks before the war in Ukraine started which further exacerbated rising energy prices.
Other issues that respondents pointed to were climate change (17%), health (15%), security (12%) and education (11%).
Nine in 10 residents thought the economy was in good shape, an increase of four percentage points compared to a year ago, which puts Luxembourg at the top across the bloc. All of Luxembourg's neighbours deemed the state of their economies to be worse compared to 2021, with 64% of Germans, 53% of Belgians and just 27% of the French saying it was in good shape. The EU average stood at 39%.
Those numbers are also reflected in how respondents assessed their own financial situation, with 87% of Luxembourg residents stating their finances were in a good state and 64% estimating that is unlikely to change over the course of the year.
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