Credit: Ministry of Housing

The Luxembourg state has paid a total budget of €379 million to the municipalities under the Housing Pact agreement, of which nearly 95% already been invested.

On 7 February 2018, Marc Hansen, Minister of Housing, and Dan Kersch, Minister of the Interior, presented the 3rd Monitoring of the Housing Pact. Over a period of ten years, 32,837 housing units were built- 71% of which were apartments- and inhabited in the signatory municipalities of the agreement into which the state has paid a total budget of €379 million.

The Housing Pact is part of the measures advocated by the state to increase, in close cooperation with the municipalities, the supply of housing. It provides them with a variety of instruments to promote the creation of housing at the municipal level. The 3rd monitoring of the Housing Pact assesses the application of these instruments over the period 2007 - 2016, respectively 2003 - 2012 for "retroactive" municipalities.

A total of 97 municipalities signed the Housing Pact agreement, thus committing to increase their population by a minimum of 15% over a period of 10 years, create new housing and create collective facilities. 63 of the 75 communes, whose agreement is spread over a ten-year period, that is to say 84%, have reached the objective of increasing the population, whilst 12 communes remained below the 15% threshold.

At the level of investment, nearly 60% of the allocated budget was invested in the construction or renovation of schools and creches.

Finally, during the 3rd monitoring, the application of the following instruments, available to any municipality that has signed the Pact Housing Agreement or not, was evaluated: the right of first refusal, the specific annual municipal tax on certain buildings, the creation of low-cost housing, the B6 tax, and exemption from income tax.