With posters, interviews, slogans and an abundance of conferences organised around the grand duchy, most people will have become aware that the communal elections are just around the corner. One of the key concerns of this year’s campaigns, regardless of the colour of the political party, is housing. More precisely, affordable housing.

But what do politicians mean by ‘affordable housing’? Affordable for whom?

To get a better insight into what affordable accommodation means, our journalist Tracy Heindrichs talked with Mike Mathias, one of the councilors at the Luxembourg ministry of housing in charge of this particular topic.

That Luxembourg housing is expensive to rent and buy, doesn’t come as a surprise to most people who live in the country or have tried to do so at some point. According to Statec, the average price of a house in the grand duchy is about €1m, and for flats, it is somewhere between €8,000 to €9,000 per square meter.

Housing prices are going down since the start of the year; Real estate company AtHome confirmed that houses and appartment prices had decreased by around 5.5% and 7% respectively during the second quarter of 2023. This is due to higher interest rates making it hard for people to take out loans. In turn, this causes the rental market to overheat under the demand of prospective residents, and prices continue to soar. And so, people leave Luxembourg bc they can’t afford to live here anymore.

Over the years, there have been state-driven projects to increase the offer of affordable housing: a year ago, for instance, in May 2022, housing minister Henri Kox said he wanted the government to one day be able to increase its spendings towards affordable housing to €500m a year. In 2021, it spent €170m towards this endeavour.

But while projects to build affordable housing are under construction, and more are promised, what does Luxembourg define as “affordable housing”?

That’s what we’re trying to find out in this episode of No Stupid Question.