Property gains will remain less taxed
In order to keep the real estate market active, the government has decided to extend the tax incentive on the value add for one extra year. Click here to read more.
New PAG for Luxembourg City
On april 28, 2017 the city of Luxembourg voted a new "plan d'aménagement général" and has created a nice website aimed at informing the public on the details. On this site, you can view the graphic and written potions of the PAG as well as some supplementary documents. For those that prefer hard copies, you can view those from the 8th to the 23rd of May at the "salle des cérémonies" of the Town Hall from 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. Objections to modifications can also be handed in. For more details, visit pag.vdl.lu.
Tax Summary For Home Buyers
Knowing the ins & outs of tax regulations can be tedious to say the least. Luckily Nexvia have made available a super handy chart that summarizes all you need to know. Here it is.
Luxembourg Tax Reform For Residential Real Estate
To counter the issue of rising property costs due to a lack of homes and constructible lots, a new tax reform has been enacted on January 1, 2017. Banque International à Luxembourg has made available this handy summary of the details of this reform here. In brief, a seller can save money through the reduction of the capital gain tax to a quarter of the global income tax rate. For buyers, there have been put in place several interest reductions on mortgages. I encourage you the read this article put together by Mr. Pierre Clément of NEXVIA.
The emphyteutic lease
The emphyteutic lease is a measure of the Ministère des Classes moyennes, du Tourisme et du Logement, which reduces the cost of housing. The buyer of a dwelling will own the home only, not the land. The latter is leasing the land on which the home is built for a maximum of 99 years. becomes the owner of the dwelling but on the other hand he leases the land on which the building is built for a maximum of 99 years. This rent is paid annually. In the event of the sale of the home, the lease continues to run for the remaining years. At the end of the lease agreement, there are two possibilities. Either the lease is extended between the Société Nationale des Habitations at Bon Marché and the owner of the accommodation, or the former redeems the building and pays market value, which is determined by experts, to the owner. If you'd like to read more on this topic, you can download this helpful PDF here.
Latest Housing Statistics For Luxembourg
If you're interested in knowing more about the latest housing figures for apartment sales, click here to view the latest report from "l'observatoire de l'habitat".
Financial Aid For Homebuyers In Luxembourg
For the purchase of your home in Luxembourg, you can benefit from the following financial aids, interest reductions and tax benefits. 1. A subsidy for home acquisitions The amount of this subsidy is calculated on the basis of your income and your family status, provided that you are the first occupant of the dwelling. You can only benefit from this aid once. 2. A savings credit This aidt is allocated under certain conditions and is only awarded to you once. 3. A governement guarantee for home loans The government guarantees your mortgage in case you don’t have the funds to do so yourself. 4. An Interest rate reduction A reduction in interest rates will reduce your monthly mortgage payments. This reduction is only awarded once and under certain conditions. 5. An Interest rate reduction for public officials This interest rate reduction, which lowers monthly mortgage payments, can be applied for by government officials only. 7. Tax benefits for home purchases, including: Interest rate reduction for home financing Reduction of the interest expense of the building, if your building is not yet occupied Reduction of social security contributions and insurance premiums Reduction of home-purchase contributions Tax credit (Bëllegen Akt) For more information, please visit the following [...]
3 Tips For Home Buyers
So you’ve saved up some money and can’t wait to buy your new home. Before you line up your home visits though, it’s best to get prepared so you won’t run into trouble along the way. Tip #1: Go have a talk with your banker You will likely waste a lot of time if you start looking for a home, only to find out later that the homes you were looking at don’t fit in your budget. Yes, a banker will not get you a bank loan if you don’t have a purchase contract signed, but they can give you an idea of what budget you can expect. There are even handy online calculators such as this one, which let you figure out how much house you can afford. Knowing whether to sell your home first before looking for a new one, or buying the new one first before ditching the old one is always a popular topic of discussion. Your banker can help here as well. Tip #2: Figure out what you want There are many clients that start looking before they even know what they want. And granted, it’s not always easy to know exactly what you want. But you could start by [...]
The Energy Pass
In Luxembourg, all residential buildings are given energy ratings. What is an Energy Pass? The Energy Pass is a certificat that provides information on energy consumption and CO2 emissions of a building. The ratings go from A (best) to I (worst). When do you need to get an Energy Pass? As owner of a home, you’ll need to get an Energy Pass done when: when you make substantial transformation to a building there is a change of owners and an Energy Pass has not been done for the building. All public ads of a sale of a building must mention its energy rating as well as its thermal insulation rating. For more information, please visit guichet.lu.
The market is smarter than you – Part 2
In my previous article, I explained how the market is smarter than all of us. Here are two more lessons we can learn about how the market does its thing. Lesson #2: Timing the real estate market is not possible: It’s impossible to time the market as none of us have a crystal ball. Consider this scenario: Waiting to buy until the crash Some buyers think they can postpone their purchase until the market bottoms out. There are a couple of problems with that strategy. Problem #1: How to you know when the market has reached the bottom? You’d only know that the market bottomed out once it actually starts recovering. By then, you’ve missed it. Problem #2: If it was really that easy to time the market, we’d all be millionaires. We’d all have bought stock when it was at the bottom and sold it when it was at an all-time high. Problem #3: While you’re waiting for the market to crash, real estate in Luxembourg would rise. During that time, you’d be paying someone’s rent or mortgage. In Luxembourg, real estate prices have continually risen since 2004 and will do so for the foreseeable future. Recently, at a seminar organized by the BCEE, an [...]