Single parents are the most vulnerable group in the housing market

In Luxembourg, single parents make up 4.3% of all households. Most of them are women. And in the housing market, they face the most risks out of all the residents of the country. This is the conclusion reached by the Luxembourg Housing Observatory (Observatoire de l’habitat) in a joint study with STATEC.

The study calculated an «accessibility rating». For single parents, it is very high — 38.4%. But this is not a good sign. The rating indicates what percentage of a homeowner’s income is spent on renting a home or paying a mortgage on it, as well as paying utility bills.

Single parents spend almost 40% of their salary on housing. On average, this is more than 1200 euros per month. The cost of housing, communal services and other housing-related expenses for them increased by 17.3% over 3 years (2016-2019). It increased more strongly only for couples without children — by 19.4%.

And single parents do not earn much money for expenses: from 2016 to 2019, their incomes increased by an average of only 6.2% (for couples without children, it increased by 12.4%, for couples with children — by 11.3% ).

The combination of these two indicators makes single parents the most vulnerable group in today’s housing market. Full details of the study and statistics can be found online.