Limpertsberg

So we've done Belair.  The natural next step would be Limpertsberg.  It's one of the largest neighborhoods in the city and it's all the better for it.  Unlike in Belair, you'll find homeowners living here  (keep in mind that more than 80% of people who live in Belair rent their lodgings), people who've been around for decades, since before most people could place Luxembourg on the map.  Why is this important? It's not about snobbery, but about stability.  Put your kids to state school in Belair and soon you'll have them crying all the way home because their best friend is moving somewhere else.  It's like leaving your attic window and garage door open at the same time.  Stuff is likely to come flying through.  A lot of people aspire to living in Belair and find it quite easy to do so when they first move to Luxembourg.  Rents aren't really that much higher than other places in the city and there is plenty of housing to rent.  Yet after a few years, the expat assignment comes to an end and people go back home - or people decide to stay and to buy, which more often than not, unless you want to live in a small apartment, means moving somewhere more affordable.  I can't really say that Limpertsberg is that place, because it's still pretty darn expensive, but it is more stable.  You've got plenty of Portuguese people living here, and unlike what the Luxembourgers want you to think, this is a good thing.  It means you'll have friendly neighbours who won't complain when you light the barbecue (and you'll smell their lovely fried squid from time to time too), they'll chat over the garden fence and smile to your children.  I speak from experience.  Once you have neighbours like that, they will be your main reason for staying put.  Ok, so Limpertsberg.  There are couple of main roads running through the 'quartier' which you'd probably want to avoid if you're sensitive to traffic and people honking their horns.  The worst, by far, is Avenue de la Faiencerie, you'd want to avoid this address at any cost.  People zoom through here morning and evening to get from/to Rollingergrund, Muhlenbach, Bridel, Strassen, Belgium etc. Then there's Avenue Pasteur which gets busy too and Albert Unden which connects Muhlenbach with Limpertsberg. Avenue Victor Hugo gets its fair share of cars too, but it's nothing like Faiencere.  Another one is Rue de Glacis, the one that winds itself down from the Glacis square (parking space) to Côte d'Eich.  It gets very busy during rush hour, but it's fairly quiet at other times.  There are some beautiful villas along this street and if I tell you how much they sold for 10 years ago, you would shout at me in disgust, so I won't.  If you're after an apartment, there are some really nice ones in the street of the American embassy and even more just opposite, in Ancienne Côte d'Eich.  In the latter there are a few different buildings, one of which probably dates from the early naughties and is in pretty good nick.  By the look of it, it has nice quiet views on a tiny little valley behind.  The only problem is that, although  the street is open only to residents, many people use it as a shortcut to avoid the winding Rue de Glacis, and thus speed through it, in order for the shortcut to make sense.  So keep your children and dogs on a tight leash.  Apart from that, anywhere east of Victor Hugo is likely to be a good bet, there are some nice, quiet streets, but you'll be paying LIBOR+.  In terms of restaurants, there isn't much going on, but don't forget that you're within walking distance of the centre.  There are a few pizzerias (mainly quite dodgy, including Porta Nova) , not great, but they'll do; an excellent Indian (Tibet 2); Brasserie Schumann which is pricey, but quite good and in with the young professional crowd, a Chinese place which is ok and a few Luxembourgish non-descript places.  In short, it's not where you go to have a good meal in Luxembourg.  There's the Cafe de Tramways, which is a bit of an institution.  And you have the university (although parts of it have moved to Esch and are parts are still to go) which makes for a bit of life in the Northern End.  The Tony Neumann Park is nice and quiet and there's a very nice residential area just next to it.  It wouldn't win any prices for architecture, but I can imagine that it would be a good, quiet area for families with kids.  There's also a small supermarket in Avenue Pasteur (Cactus) and a few banks.  Parking can be a nightmare in August when the annual amusement fair occupies the Glacis parking space for the best part of a month, and to a lesser extent when the circus comes just before Christmas.

Where to live in Luxembourg - An Introduction

Foreigners make up half of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg's population and more than two thirds of the capital, the City of Luxembourg.  In 2013, 21,000 people decided to make the Grand Duchy their new home, representing some 3.8% of the population that year, and the trend is growing.  The vast majority of these newcomers have at least one thing in common:  They need a place to live.

Making a choice about the right location for you and your family is not an easy one:  One person's trash is another one's treasure, as the saying goes.  Where you end up living in the end will depend on a number of factors such as your family situation; your aspirations; your work location and not least, your budget.  You might even end up living outside Luxembourg, like some 160,000 of Luxembourg's 360,000 strong workforce.

Whatever you choose, chances are that you will not have a lot of time to make up your mind.  And if you're coming from abroad, it is also highly likely that you know very little about Luxembourg as a country, not even to mention its different residential areas.  So information is key.  If you are fortunate enough to be an expatriate whose employer pays for a relocation advisory (such as integreat.lu - a great company that one's helped me), it is very likely that you will be given most of the information you need to make an informed choice.  However, today's employers are increasingly cost-conscious and this kind of service is increasingly rare.  And that's where I come into the picture.

I have no ambition of replacing any relocation service and as a full-time bank employee, husband and father of four, God knows I wouldn't have the time or patience to anyway, but I have been here for some eleven years now and I now feel as though this city has become my own, warts and all, and given this fact, that my opinions and experience may be of help to other people.

So Ladies and Gentlemen, I hereby present to you my blog: Where to Live in Luxembourg (and around).  I intend to start by giving you a bit of general background and then introducing the 24 neighborhoods (or 'quartiers') of Luxembourg City, one by one.  As a foreigner, it is highly likely that you will end up in Luxembourg city or in its close vicinity and if you ask me, you won't regret it.

Belair

So let's start with the crown jewel.  You have arrived.  Only the best is good enough. So, if money is now object in Luxembourg, be it the Grand Duchy or the City of Luxembourg, which is the most sought after address? I'm going to drag this one out for a while.  I just read on another blog that somebody said that the Grund is an 'upmarket area' in Luxembourg city.  I don't want really be a know-it-all smart-ass, but let me tell you this much: It isn't.  I love the Grund. But I wouldn't want to live there and chances are you wouldn't want your kids to go to school there, because it has a rather bad reputation.  But anyway, I said I would start with Belair, so I will.

Belair is the crème de la crème of Luxembourg City (and no, I don't live there, so trust my objectivity).  During the years many of the City's neighbourhoods have contended for this title, but they have never managed to keep it.  When I arrived here, a looooong time ago, Weimershof, claimed the title because of property prices.  The average housing price was higher here than in any other Luxembourg neighbourhood, they claimed.  But in a small place like Luxembourg, statistical weaknesses come into play.  Weimershof is a very small neighbourhood with very few properties for sale at any given point in time (most of which with unrealistic price expectations), so prices tend to be inflated.  Belair has many more apartments so tends to be more liquid.  Advertised prices in Belair tend to be closer to transacted prices.  So take my word for it, if you want the best address in Luxembourg, you want to live in Belair.

However.  There are always pros and cons.  If you're in it for the long-haul, Belair might not be the best option for you.  Belair has one of the highest, if not THE highest, proportion of renters/tenants.  In plain English, most people living in Belair do not actually own their home.  This is not necessarily a bad thing in itself as not everybody buys into the whole Luxembourg ownership thing, but it also means that Belair tends to be inhabited by people who, all of sudden, won't inhabit it anymore.  So you'll find yourself trying to explain to your daughter who's all excited to see her new best friend again after the summer holidays, that said best friend just moved back to Sweden as her Dad's expat contract came to its end.  It's the reality of things in Belair, I'm afraid.

But it is pretty, darn pretty.  As long as you manage to avoid living along one of the main roads coming through the neighbourhood, such as Avenue du X Septembre, Val Sainte-Croix, Avenue Guillaume, Boulevard Joseph II, Avenue Grande Duchesse Charlotte or to a lesser extent, Avenue Gaston Diderich, you should find yourself living in a very pretty, quiet street within easy walking distance of the City Centre and a number of nice parks.

Belair has a large number of large, terraced houses, but very few of them are for sale at any given point in time.  It seems to be a place of old money and renters, 'nobody' seems to ever want to let go of a house in Belair and even the most ridiculously expensive house on the market in Belair at the moment are far from being the nicest houses in the area.  Apartments, however, are much easier to find.  There are a number of new developments on the way in Belair, but a lot of them seem to be around the areas you should avoid because of traffic.

In terms of restaurants, Belair doesn't have much to offer.  It has a tired, fake Italian called Belcanto in Rue Marguerite Thomas-Clement, which might have the odd Portuguese waiter pretending to speak Italian, but in general is a typical Luxembourgish outfit cooking overdone pasta.  However, it has a great terrace on a quiet road and merits a visit even if it's just to have a drink. There is also a Fischer's bakery, the worst industrial sort there is in Luxembourg, just on the corner between Gaston Diderich and Rue Theodore Eberhard.  Ci Siamo is another fake Italian, run by Luxembourgers, which offers very mediocre Italian style food, at a price suited to Belair at an address set at the beginning of Avenue Gaston Diderich.  A good address, though, even if not cheap, is the Restaurant Thailand, also on Gaston Diderich, owned by the same people as Thai Celadon in Rue du Nord in the old town.  Takajo is a reasonably good sushi place, albeit at prices you would expect in the Belair location.  Restaurant Scheiss in Val Sainte Croix does on most occasions live up to it's name (hint: look up Scheiss on the German-English version of Google translate).  Cafe Belair, which serves an original choice of home-made hamburgers and a special selection of wines and whisky, deserves a visit, though, even if the atmosphere is somewhat cramped.

The school in Belair has a good reputation and is located in a calm area with good facilities surrounding it.  If you're not put off by the 'expat' situation described above, there are definitely worse places to send your children in Luxembourg.

If you're dying to live in Belair, but can't find somewhere nice enough, you might want to consider some of the bordering areas of Hollerich, around Rue Marie Adelaide, Rue de Nassau, Rue Adolphe which are very pretty too.  There is also an excellent value for money restaurant to be found at the corner of Rue Marie-Adelaide and Route d'Esch, the Fin Gourmand.

To be or not to be? Resident vs. Cross-border worker.

This is one of the most tricky questions.  And then again it isn't.

When considering moving to Luxembourg, one of the first things potential immigrants (let's call a spade a spade, shall we, that is what we are, although I know a lot you prefer to think of yourselves as 'expats') will do is to google 'Luxembourg Property' (if you're British) or 'Luxembourg Real Estate' (if you're American) or even more likely, 'Where the heck is Luxembourg' (if you're either).  Bizarrely, as far as the first two are concerned, Luxembourg's most visited property website, athome.lu, doesn't even appear among the top results.  But there you have it, athome.lu, mediocre as it may be compared to what you're used to from back home, is the one-stop shop for property in Luxembourg.  A few web portals are trying to compete, but, although I hate to admit it, they just offer regurgitated subsets of what you can find on athome.lu.

Most people have a similar reaction when they visit athome while still living abroad:  Surely there must be something wrong with the webpage, all the prices seem to have a zero too much.  Welcome to Luxembourg.  Like a Luxembourg-based French lawyer recently put it on prime-time French television:  In Luxembourg, a normal house will set you back some 900,000 to 1m euros and it will be the kind of house you can have in one of the neighboring countries for about 250,000 euros.  Follow the Moselle river into Germany for about an hour (on a Sunday) and a similar house might be yours for under 100,000.  Inevitably, this makes a lot of people consider living in one of the neighboring countries and commuting in for work.  Some websites may even recommend this, especially the real estate agency propaganda machine.  I'm always amused, when properties in Germany are advertised as being '25 minutes drive away from Luxembourg City Centre'.  Chances are that if you're driving from Luxembourg City Centre during rush hour, 25 minutes later you'll still be in Luxembourg City Centre or very close thereto, so take my advice, don't let yourself be fooled.  It's tempting, of course, to consider the options.  A quick surf on immoweb.be will show you that for 400,000 euros you can have a large house with a swimming pool and lovely garden in Belgium, only 50km away from Luxembourg City.  Similary, a visit to seloger.com will show you all the amazing places you can getin Thionville and Metz for a similar price.   Or immowelt.de for some eye-candy (at least relatively speaking in Germany).  I have only one thing to say:

DON'T DO IT.

I mean absolutely no offense to the cross-border workers or the proud residents of Arlon, Thionville and Trier when I say this, but I want to warn people that they may seriously end up regretting their choice if they decide to live outside Luxembourg.  As someone who's lived here for 11 years and seen traffic getting worse every year, and who, like most people here, has the pleasure of working with numerous cross-border workers (or 'frontaliers' as they're known as over here), I am very confident that what I'm telling you is good advice, not least because many cross-border workers themselves tell me so.  They thought it was expensive here ten years ago and settled for cheaper, and often larger, lodgings in the neighboring countries.  The fact that property prices in those areas have stagnated whilst those in Luxembourg have more or less exploded since is only a minor point in my view.  The key thing here is the significant drop in quality of life that you must reckon with if you choose to live outside the borders (or close them as the case may be).  What's the point of a large house with a large garden and a pool if you don't have any time to enjoy it all?  What's the point of bringing up a family if you hardly ever see your kids during the week?  Or of waking up in the morning stressed about what your journey to work will be like and spending the last two hours at work worrying about what a nightmare the evening traffic will be on the way home?  I see this at work every day.  Coffee machine conversation among the frontaliers in the morning is about the latest roadworks, crazy drivers, accident or unexplained traffic jams.  How there's really no point in driving to work anymore unless you leave at 5.30am.  And how the trains are useless or on strike, or both.  The traffic situation in Luxembourg is getting worse by the day - only beaten by Brussels, as far as I know - and the statistics are there to prove it.  It was only yesterday, that the overall competitiveness of Luxembourg was downgraded, one of the contributing factors being the poor traffic and public transport situation.

The traffic situation is one thing and it should be enough in itself.  Then there's a host of other reasons.  If you're Belgian wanting to settle in Arlon, or French looking for a place in Thionville, or German taking up residence in Trier, I can sort of understand it for reasons such as proximity to family and friends, the wish to remain within your own country and culture.  But for the very same reason, I would strongly dissuade a foreigner from another country from moving there.  The fact that a lot of the residents of those countries are already 'settled' so to speak means that more often than not they already have well-established social networks and are thus less inclined to seeking contact with new arrivals.  In Luxembourg, however, and especially Luxembourg City, you can expect the majority of people you meet to be in a similar situation to yours and even if they've been here for a while, such as I, they will appreciate what it's like to be an outsider.  You will probably get more lunch, dinner and play-date invitations than you got even in your own country.  It's absolutely marvellous and even pretty unique, I would say.  True melting pots, such as London, cannot really compare, as they lack the intimacy of a small place like Luxembourg.  Some people might not like the fact that Luxembourg is so cozy, but I dare say that if you're family with kids, you will be happier here than in London or Paris and integrating, even if you only speak English and no French, a rather easy task.

There is a host of other benefits too, such as certain fiscal advantages and unemployment benefits reserved for residents, excellent healthcare, a well-funded State school system with small class-sizes, relatively good international school alternatives, a higher level of consideration by the native population and a safe, clean and green environment.

So if you're foreign and moving to Luxembourg and hesitating about where to live:  Don't.  Choose Luxembourg City.  You won't regret it.  Everywhere else is too far away these days.