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Communes can tax empty properties but they need to first figure out what is actually unoccupied. Photo: Matic Zorman 

Luxembourg faces a housing crisis, with the latest data by statistics office Statec showing prices rose a staggering 16.7% in the last quarter of 2020 compared to the year before. Protesters last weekend staged a march in the capital demanding affordable housing.

One of the reasons for the crisis is a gap between supply and demand, which activists say is exacerbated by owners sitting on empty property, both buildable land and homes.

But there is no public data on the number of empty apartments or houses in the country, the housing ministry said on Wednesday.

“There is no general housing census at national level and therefore such a general housing census cannot be correlated with the register of natural persons in order to relatively reliably identify the number of unoccupied dwellings,” Kox said.

However, he explained, that around 6% of properties will always be empty at any given time because of movement in the market. This would account for roughly 15,000 housing units, he said.

Authorities in Belgium use water and electricity consumption to identify empty homes, Kox said, adding, however, that this isn’t an efficient measure as the necessary information isn’t available to communes or not accessible for data protection reasons.

A 2008 law allows communes to levy higher taxes on homes that have been unoccupied as either a primary or secondary place of residence for 18 consecutive months. But this requires that communes keep a log not only of buildings but also individual apartments within multi-family homes.

Currently, only eight communes have put in place a tax on empty properties, including Beckerich, Bettendorf, Diekirch, Esch-sur-Alzette, Esch-sur-Sûre, Redange, Roeser and Winseler.