Luxembourg tells Esch to lift disputed flat-sharing ban
Plan was to ban people from living under same roof if they're not related or in relationship
Houses in Esch-sur-Alzette in the south of Luxembourg © Photo credit: Eberhard Wolf
Residents in Luxembourg’s second largest city will be able to live under the same roof even if they are not related or in a relationship, after a controversial plan to ban home sharing was overturned.
The commune of Esch-sur-Alzette in the south of the country had put forward plans to ban house or flat sharing unless those living there were from the same family or in a relationship in a bid to prevent property owners from making money by renting out individual rooms rather than the entire home.
Renting out individual rooms has led to ordinary families being priced out of the market, Esch mayor, Georges Mischo, said last year when the plans were tabled.
But Interior Minister Taina Bofferding, who is originally from the city, vetoed the plan and the paragraph banning home sharing in the city’s urban plan, known as PAG, has now been deleted, Mischo told radio station 100,7 on Thursday.
In a heating real estate market, where property prices have more than doubled in the past decade and increased by almost 17% over the last year alone, some are turning to flat sharing in search of cheaper housing.
The commune of Esch-sur-Alzette includes Belval, which is home to the country’s only university’s main campus, where flat sharing is common among students.
The issue came to light last year when a doctoral student at the University of Luxembourg was told she could not register at her new address because she would be sharing a home with people she was not related to.
