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.
