Renting Guide

Comparing two Luxembourg rentals when the monthly rents are close

The advertised rent is the smallest of the differences between two apartments. Six fields make the comparison real, and three of them are costs that arrive later.

Field one: what the rent actually includes

The monthly figure quoted is frequently rent plus an avance sur charges, an estimate reconciled annually. Ask what the advance covers and ask for the reconciled statement for a completed year rather than the provision.

A low advance against high reconciled costs is a deferred bill rather than a saving, and it is the single most common reason two apartments that look equivalent are not.

Ask separately whether heating is collective or individual. Where it is collective, allocation is usually by heat-cost allocators on each radiator and appears months later.

Field two: the energy class

The difference in running cost between a class A new-build and an unrenovated class G building runs to several hundred euros a month over a heating season from roughly October to April.

That dwarfs most differences in advertised rent, and it is stated on the energy passport, which the landlord must provide. Ask for it rather than for a description.

Note that in Luxembourg the network operator and the supplier are separate: Creos operates the network and reads the meters on behalf of all suppliers, while your supplier sells the energy. Switching supplier requires no change to the meter, and default supply is regulated but priced above ordinary contract tariffs.

Field three: what is included in the apartment

Unfurnished here is frequently genuinely empty. Confirm item by item and in writing: oven, hob, extractor, fridge, dishwasher, washing machine and its connection, wardrobes, light fittings.

Each is several hundred euros and a delivery slot. Two apartments with identical rents where one includes a kitchen and the other does not are separated by several thousand euros in the first month.

Field four: door-to-desk time

Measure it in four parts: the walk at your end, the waiting time taken from the timetable at your actual departure hour, the ride, and the walk from the stop to the desk at the other end.

Public transport is free nationwide, so there is no fare to weigh, and the tram has run the full length of line 1 since March 2025 with 24 stations of which ten are interchange hubs. The variable is minutes, frequency and gradient.

Walk each route once in the dark and the wet, in both directions. Luxembourg City is a plateau cut by the Alzette and Pétrusse valleys, and a descent going out is a climb coming home with shopping.

Field five: the measurements that decide whether you can furnish it

Normalise the surface first: Luxembourg listings routinely mix habitable surface with terraces, balconies, cellars and parking in one headline figure.

Then measure the longest uninterrupted wall in each room, the number of doors and their swings, the ceiling height, and the cave, taken rather than described, with the base of the walls checked for salt bloom.

Two apartments of identical stated surface can differ completely on all four, and those are the numbers that determine whether standard furniture fits.

Field six: thirty seconds of silence

Stand in the main bedroom of each with the window closed and stay silent for thirty seconds.

That measures what the building transmits through its structure, which in the converted townhouses of Limpertsberg, Belair and the Gare district is far more consequential than street noise. It is also the one property neither a tenant nor an owner can change, since the floors between lots are common parts.

The lease terms, which should be identical and are not always

Since 1 August 2024 the guarantee cannot exceed two months' rent calculated on the base rent excluding charges. Check the arithmetic yourself, since calculating it on rent plus charges is a common and material error.

Agency commission on a new lease is shared equally between landlord and tenant. Ask which clause allocates small maintenance and the annual boiler service, since in Luxembourg leases these commonly fall to the tenant.

And ask for the règlement de copropriété and any règlement d'ordre intérieur, since most leases bind the tenant to respect them and they govern pets, bicycles, balconies and storage.

Putting it on one sheet

Fill the same fields for both properties on the evening of the visit. After four viewings the apartment you remember as better value will be the one with the best kitchen.

Then one subjective column and only one: whether you would be content there on a wet Sunday in November. Everything else on the sheet is a number, which is the point.

Three questions we are asked

Which field usually decides it? The energy class and the reconciled charges together, because between them they can exceed the advertised rent difference several times over.

Is it worth paying more for a shorter commute? Set the ceiling before viewing and treat it as a hard constraint. Almost every relocation regret traces back to a commute accepted as temporary.

Should I negotiate the rent? On a property listed for several weeks in a tight market, it is a reasonable conversation. On a new listing it rarely is, and the more productive negotiation is usually about what is included.

Where the real difference usually turns out to be

Across the comparisons we see, three items account for most of the gap between two apartments with similar advertised rents.

The energy class, which over a heating season from October to April can exceed the rent difference several times over. What is included in the kitchen, which is a several-thousand-euro difference concentrated in the first month. And the reconciled charges against the advance, which is invisible until the annual statement arrives.

All three are askable before signing and none of them appears in a listing. The advertised rent is the one number both landlords compete on and therefore the one where the difference is smallest.

Three questions we are asked

Should I ask for the reconciled charges? Always, and for a completed year rather than a projection. A landlord who cannot produce them is telling you something about how the building is run.

Is a higher rent with everything included better? Sometimes, and only the calculation tells you. Multiply the difference by the months you expect to stay and compare it against the energy class and the included appliances.

What if both apartments pass everything? Then use the one subjective question: which would you rather come home to on a wet Sunday in November.

The two questions that reveal most

Beyond the six fields, two questions to the agent separate a well-run property from one that is merely presented.

Ask for the reconciled charges statement for a completed year. A landlord who cannot produce it is telling you something about how the building is managed, and the gap between that figure and the advance is frequently the largest difference between two apartments.

And ask what is included in the kitchen, item by item, in writing. Unfurnished in Luxembourg is frequently genuinely empty, and the answer is worth several thousand euros concentrated in the first month.

The speed and precision of both replies is itself information you cannot get any other way before signing.