Claude Meisch: "Solving the housing problem requires a collective effort"

Luxembourg's Minister of Housing, Claude Meisch, spoke in an interview with d'Handwierk about the challenges and plans to address the housing crisis in Luxembourg. Despite the Special Housing Fund's budget being increased to €461 million in 2025, only 58 per cent of the allocated funds were used in 2023. The Minister explained that the realisation of construction projects takes time and the government is ready to act proactively to speed up the process.

Meisch said that the main goal is to create more affordable flats in cooperation with public and private developers, as well as communes and non-profit organisations. He emphasised that solving the housing issue requires a collective effort, which is why the government is involving private developers.

In 2024, 15 VEFA (purchase under construction) housing contracts totalling €165 million were signed. However, construction takes time and bureaucratic processes slow down implementation. To speed up the process, the government has developed a catalogue of 40 administrative simplification measures, presented in June 2024, which will allow for faster use of allocated budgets.

Maish stressed that accelerating affordable housing is a priority that will also help stabilise the construction sector. To this end, the government is using all available tools and data to speed up projects. The most important step in this direction was the simplification of administrative procedures.

In addition, the government is actively promoting the VEFA strategy by analysing new projects and increasing cooperation with the private sector. The involvement of private property developers and the creation of employee housing has become an important aspect. Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) are seen as an effective strategy, with plans to launch rental projects through PPP in spring 2025.

An important part of the strategy was the mobilisation of "Baulücken" - empty plots in already built-up areas that make it possible to create up to 23,000 new flats for 50,000 people. For this purpose, the Raum+ project was launched, which identified more than 12,000 empty plots of land.

In 2023, 315 flats were built by the Housing Foundation and SNHBM. Meisch is confident that construction volumes will increase in the coming years due to major projects: Wunne mat der Wooltz, Nei Schmelz and Itzeger Knupp.

Close co-operation between SNHBM, the Housing Construction Fund and private construction companies is important for the successful implementation of the plans. Meisch emphasised that every municipality can become a developer in its territory and the government is ready to support local initiatives.

The Minister noted that the autonomy of communes often hinders development processes due to a reluctance to increase population density. In order to motivate communes to participate more actively in the design and construction of housing, the government is preparing legislative changes, including the reform of Article 29bis.