Written from the other side of the transaction: the specific images and figures that let a buyer decide whether a property is worth an afternoon, and what their absence usually means.
The elimination questions, answered or not
A buyer working through listings is not admiring properties. They are eliminating them, and six facts do most of that work. A listing that answers all six is doing its job; one that answers two is generating viewings from people who will withdraw.
- Habitable surface, stated separately from terraces, cellar and parking. A property advertised at 110 m² including a 15 m² terrace and a 10 m² cave is an 85 m² apartment.
- Energy class. Compulsory for a property on the market, and now a financing variable: A to C generally attract the best lending conditions, F to H typically triggers stricter analysis with works folded into the buyer's financing plan.
- Floor level and lift. In the converted stock that dominates Limpertsberg, Belair and the Gare district, a fourth floor without a lift is common and eliminates a large share of buyers.
- Reconciled charges, not the monthly provision.
- Parking: included, charged separately, or none.
- Orientation of the main rooms.
Reading a gallery for what it omits
Absence is information. Three patterns recur.
No shot of a room from the doorway. Every room should appear once, at eye level, from where you would first see it. Where that shot is missing there is usually a reason: a radiator badly placed, a boiler cupboard, or a door opening into the only usable wall.
No view out of any window. Agents crop these, and obstruction is what determines light. If a building opposite rises above roughly forty-five degrees from the window, a south-facing room on a low floor will get very little sun in a Luxembourg winter, when the sun stays low and sets before half past four in late December.
No cave, no parking, no common parts. All three are part of the purchase. The cellar in particular varies enormously and is where bicycles, suitcases and winter tyres have to live.
Correcting for the lens
Wide-angle photography is standard and unavoidable in small rooms. Three corrections make a gallery readable.
Find a fixed reference: a standard interior door is around 80 cm wide, a kitchen unit 60 cm deep, a single bed 90 cm. Count the corners visible in one frame, because a photograph showing three walls of a bedroom at once means a narrow room. And read the shadows on the floor, which tell you the direction and strength of the light better than any description.
Then ask for the dimensioned floor plan, which is the only element of a listing that cannot be distorted by a lens. If none exists, ask for the acte de base, which contains the authoritative description of the lot.
The documents to request before booking
A short email filters more effectively than an extra viewing, and the response tells you two things: the facts, and how the seller handles a straightforward request.
Ask for the energy passport, the reconciled charges for the last two completed years, the minutes of the last three general assemblies, and the balance and annual contribution of the fonds de travaux, compulsory in every Luxembourg co-ownership since 1 August 2023 with a minimum set per square metre of energy reference surface graded by the building's insulation class.
Add one question the documents will not answer: whether any works have been voted and not yet called for. That is an existing liability attaching to the lot rather than a risk.
Where the price sits in your own arithmetic
Before booking anything, know what the property costs to acquire rather than what it costs. Duties are 7%, being 6% registration and 1% transcription, with regulated notary emoluments of roughly 1% to 1.5% plus VAT, disbursements and any mortgage deed on top, and those costs are normally excluded from the financing.
Against the duties sits the Bëllegen Akt: €40,000 per buyer, €80,000 for a couple acquiring together, permanent since July 2025, conditional on occupying the property as your principal residence from entry into possession or within two years, with a minimum €100 always payable. To combine two credits, the deed must record a joint acquisition en indivision.
Total acquisition costs commonly land between roughly 8% and 13% of the price for owner-occupiers after the credit. Knowing your own figure before the first viewing is what prevents a shortlist built at the wrong price level.
Booking the viewing with a purpose
Arrive with three or four marked questions rather than a general intention to look around: confirm the ceiling height, which no plan shows; establish which walls are structural, since in a copropriété the structure is a common part and works touching it require the general assembly's authorisation; stand silently for thirty seconds in the bedroom nearest the lift shaft or the risers; and measure the longest uninterrupted wall in each bedroom.
Then walk from the building entrance to the nearest tram or bus stop and time it yourself. Public transport is free nationwide, so the variables are minutes, frequency and gradient, and on a plateau cut by valleys a short route on a map can involve a lift or a serious climb.
Three questions we are asked
Should I dismiss a listing with poor photographs? Not automatically. In a market where properties are placed quickly, a thin gallery with a precise, accurate text is often worth a call, and it is the least competitive viewing you will attend.
What if the surface figure is unclear? Ask what it includes, in writing. It is the number every comparison depends on, and an answer that cannot be given plainly is itself the answer.
How many viewings before an offer? Two at minimum, at different times of day, with the documents read in between. Once an offer is accepted it leads to a compromis de vente, which is binding, so the rigour belongs before rather than after.
Building a shortlist that survives a week of viewings
After four or five viewings memory reliably corrupts, and the apartment with the best light becomes the one with the best kitchen. Record the same fields for every property on the same evening.
Habitable surface excluding terrace and cellar. Price, and price per normalised square metre. Reconciled charges. The works fund contribution and balance. Energy class. Floor and lift. Orientation of the main rooms. Longest bedroom wall. Cave size. Parking. Minutes on foot to the nearest stop. Works voted and not yet called for.
Add your own acquisition figure for each, calculated with your actual Bëllegen Akt position rather than a generic 7%, since the credit is a fixed amount and absorbs the duties fully at some price levels and only partly at others.
Then one subjective column and only one: whether you would be content there on a wet Sunday in November. That single question does more work than a page of impressions, because it tests the property against the conditions in which you will actually live in it.
Editorial note: Market practice, acquisition costs and co-ownership obligations in Luxembourg change, and every sale differs. This article is a framework, not advice on a specific property. Confirm the current position with your agent, your notary or the Administration de l’enregistrement, des domaines et de la TVA before relying on it.