Buying Guide

Judging natural light during a twenty-minute Luxembourg viewing

At 49 degrees north, with the sun setting before half past four in late December and a large share of winter days overcast, light is a permanent characteristic of a property. It can be assessed reliably in a short visit if you measure rather than look.

Establish orientation before you form an impression

Open the compass on your phone in the living room and in each bedroom, and write the bearings down. Everything else is interpretation of that single fact, and an agent's answer given from memory is not a substitute.

South-facing rooms receive usable light through the middle of the day year-round, and in newer buildings with large glazed areas can overheat in summer. East takes the morning, which suits a kitchen or bedroom. West takes late afternoon and evening, which suits a living room for standard working hours. North receives no direct sun at all, which in a Luxembourg winter means artificial light from mid-afternoon.

North is not automatically a refusal. North light is even and free of glare, and a north-facing study or bedroom is frequently pleasant. A north-facing living room with a single window in a converted building is a different proposition and should be reflected in the price.

Obstruction matters more than orientation

Orientation tells you where the sun is. Obstruction tells you whether it arrives.

Stand at each window and estimate the angle to the top of whatever faces you. As a working guide, where a facing building rises above roughly forty-five degrees, a south-facing room on a low floor receives very little direct sun in winter, when the sun stays low. This is the most common disappointment in the denser parts of the city: courtyard apartments in the Gare district and lower Bonnevoie can be south-facing on paper and dark in practice.

Luxembourg City's topography adds a second layer. The plateau is cut by the Alzette and Pétrusse valleys, so an apartment in the Grund, Clausen or Pfaffenthal may have a valley wall on one side, which is spectacular and removes a portion of the sky. Ask which side the slope sits on.

Trees are the variable people forget. A viewing in February with bare branches and a move in May can produce a considerably darker flat than the one agreed.

Three measurements that predict light better than impressions

• Window head height. Light penetrates roughly in proportion to how high the top of the window sits, not to how wide it is. A tall narrow window lights a room more deeply than a wide low one.
• Room depth from the window wall. Useful daylight reaches about two to two and a half times the window head height into a room. A living room seven metres deep with a head at 2.2 metres will have a dark far end whatever the orientation.
• Number of external walls. A corner apartment with windows on two elevations behaves entirely differently from a single-aspect flat of the same area.

Note reveal depth as well. Older Luxembourg buildings have deep reveals, which are handsome and which cut the angle of light entering the room.

Viewing after dark, which is common in winter

You can still assess a great deal. Turn off every light in the room and look out: what you can see of the sky is what will light the room in daylight. If the view is a wall at close range, you have your answer.

Then assess the artificial light, which you will use for five months. Count the ceiling points, the sockets, and whether the living room has any switched socket for lamps. Unfurnished Luxembourg lettings frequently come with bare fixtures or none, and a room with one central point is expensive to light well.

Summer, which is the other half of the same question

Large glazed areas facing south or west in a well-insulated modern building produce living rooms that are uncomfortable on a July afternoon. The distinction that matters is between internal and external shading: internal blinds stop glare after the energy has passed the glass, while external roller shutters stop heat before it enters.

Check whether shutters exist on every window or only some, whether they are motorised, and whether they actually run. A jammed shutter was either broken before you arrived or it becomes yours.

You cannot add external shading yourself. The facade is almost always a common part of the copropriété even where the balcony is for your exclusive use, so awnings, external blinds and air-conditioning units require the general assembly's authorisation.

The energy passport, read alongside your own notes

Every property offered on the market must have one. It does not grade daylight, and there is a practical relationship: large single-glazed windows in an unrenovated building bring light and lose heat, while a well-insulated newer flat may have smaller openings.

The classification is now a financing variable as well. Properties classed A to C generally attract the best lending conditions, while F to H typically triggers stricter analysis with the works integrated into the financing plan.

Three questions we are asked

Can I fix a dark room? Partly, and cheaply. Curtains hung outside the reveal clear the glass entirely when open. Pale matt finishes and a mirror facing a window rather than into the room both help. The openings themselves are part of the facade and not yours to alter.

Should I refuse a low floor? Not automatically, particularly where there is outdoor space or step-free access. Check the angle to the facing building and the aspect before deciding.

Can I ask to visit twice at different times? Ask. Where you cannot, choose the slot closest to the hour you will normally be at home, and treat summer photographs as evidence of nothing about winter.

Recording it so the comparison holds

After four viewings memory reliably corrupts, and the apartment with the best light becomes the one with the best kitchen. Note the same fields for each property on the evening of the visit.

Compass bearing of the living room and each bedroom. The estimated angle to the top of whatever faces each window. Window head height and room depth. Number of external walls. Whether external shutters exist and function. Number of ceiling points and sockets per room. And the energy class from the passport.

Then add the one subjective question worth asking: whether you would be content in that living room on a wet Sunday in November. It tests the property against the conditions in which you will actually experience it, which a June viewing does not.

Three questions we are asked

Should I discount a north-facing apartment? Price it rather than dismiss it. North light is even and glare-free, and a north-facing study or bedroom is frequently pleasant. A north-facing living room with a single window is a different proposition and it should be reflected in what you pay.

Do the photographs tell me anything about light? Yes, if you read the shadows on the floor rather than the brightness of the image. A gallery shot in flat, shadowless light either faces north or was taken under cloud, and heavy processing that turns grey window light into white sky is the most common tell in Luxembourg listings.

Does the energy class predict the light? No, and the two interact. Large single-glazed openings in an unrenovated building bring light and lose heat, while a well-insulated newer flat may have smaller openings. Read the passport alongside your own orientation notes rather than instead of them.