Renting

Planning furniture before you sign a Luxembourg lease, not after

The measurements that decide whether an apartment works are taken during a twenty-minute viewing or they are not taken at all. By the time the removal van is outside, a sofa that does not fit is a problem with no cheap solution.

What unfurnished means here

Unfurnished in Luxembourg is often genuinely empty. No wardrobes, sometimes bare ceiling fixtures rather than light fittings, and occasionally no kitchen appliances beyond the connections. This is normal and it is not always stated in the listing, so it is a question to ask at the viewing rather than an assumption to make.

Confirm specifically: whether the kitchen includes an oven, hob, extractor, fridge and dishwasher; whether there is a washing machine connection and where; whether any wardrobes are included; and whether the light fittings stay. Each of these is several hundred euros and a delivery slot.

Where the property is furnished, a landlord may charge a legitimate rent supplement for the furniture on top of the capped rent, so you should see the furniture inventory before you commit. It tells you what you are paying the supplement for, and it becomes the list against which your rental guarantee is judged at the end.

The five measurements to take at the viewing

Bring a tape measure. Twenty minutes is enough for these five, and they are the ones that produce expensive mistakes.

• Longest uninterrupted wall in each bedroom. A standard wardrobe needs about 2 metres. A bedroom with a door, a window and a radiator may have no such wall, which means bespoke joinery or a wardrobe standing where you wanted the bed.
• Living room wall for the sofa. A three-seat sofa needs roughly 2.2 metres plus clearance. Count the doors opening into the room, because each one removes a wall.
• Dining area width. A table needs about a metre behind each chair to be usable, plus a circulation route. Four metres of open-plan width will not comfortably take a six-seat table and a walkway at once.
• Entrance door, stair width and lift car. The lift is the constraint people discover on moving day. Measure the car's internal width, depth and height, and the diagonal of the door. Then measure the narrowest point of the stairwell and any turn.
• Ceiling height. Luxembourg stock varies enormously, from three metres in a nineteenth-century townhouse conversion to something considerably lower in a 1970s block. Tall wardrobes and bookcases are ordered against this number.

The lift and the staircase, which decide what can arrive

In converted townhouses in Limpertsberg, Belair and the Gare district, a fourth floor without a lift is common, and a narrow winding staircase will not take a three-seat sofa or a large mattress. Removal companies charge for an external hoist, and where the facade faces a narrow street, a hoist may need a permit from the commune.

Two practical consequences. If you are buying new, order flat-pack or modular pieces rather than assembled ones for anything large. If you are moving existing furniture from abroad, send the removal company the lift and stairwell dimensions before the quote rather than after, because a hoist added on the day is the most expensive way to discover the problem.

Radiators, sockets and windows: the invisible constraints

Three fixed elements govern where furniture can actually stand.

Radiators. A sofa or wardrobe placed against a radiator blocks the heat and, in a Luxembourg heating season running October to April, that is a real cost. Photograph each wall and note where the radiators are.

Sockets. Note the position of every socket, especially in the living room and bedrooms. A living room with a single socket group behind where the sofa must go is a room that will be lit by one lamp.

Window sill height. A desk or a low sideboard under a window works; a wardrobe does not. Where sills are low, an entire wall becomes unavailable for tall furniture.

Add the door swings from the floor plan. Every door is drawn with its arc, and those arcs are the most reliable early warning of a room that will not take the furniture you own.

Buy in a sequence, not all at once

Furnishing an apartment to a decent standard from new realistically runs between €9,000 and €14,000, and the temptation on arrival is to order everything in one weekend. That produces a room assembled from a catalogue rather than one that works.

A better order: beds and mattresses first, because sleep is not negotiable. Then storage, because until clothes and possessions have a home, nothing else can be assessed. Then seating and lighting, once you know which seat you actually use in the evening and where the light falls. Dining and decorative pieces last, after a month of living in the space.

Before buying wardrobes, look at what the outgoing tenant is doing. Where they are leaving Luxembourg, they frequently want to sell rather than ship, and a landlord holding a vacant flat has every reason to make the introduction. Ask the agent directly. Buy privately from the tenant so the pieces become yours, rather than letting them be added to the lease inventory, where they can be charged against you at the exit inspection.

What you may not alter

Fixing anything to a load-bearing wall, moving a radiator, altering a bathroom, or touching the building's common systems requires the landlord's consent and frequently the co-ownership's. The facade is almost always common property even where the balcony is for your exclusive use, which rules out awnings, external units and fixings to railings in many buildings.

Wall fixings for shelving and heavy mirrors sit in a grey area governed by your lease. Where you do fix things, photograph the wall before and after, because filling and touching in a picture hook costs a few euros before the exit inspection and appears at contractor rates afterwards.

Three questions we are asked

Should I ship furniture from abroad or buy here? If you expect to stay beyond two or three years, shipping good pieces is usually worth it. For shorter assignments, the cost of moving them out again frequently exceeds what they are worth, and a furnished letting becomes the better arithmetic.

How long do deliveries take? Plan for weeks rather than days on anything made to order, and confirm that the retailer will deliver to the floor rather than to the kerb. Delivery to the building entrance is not the same service as delivery into the apartment.

Can I ask the landlord to remove furniture I do not want? Frequently yes, where there is somewhere to store it. Record it in writing along with any adjustment to the furniture supplement, and do not move items into the cave or a common area without written agreement.

What to buy in the first week, and what to leave

Two lists are worth separating, because trying to complete an apartment in the first fortnight produces expensive decisions made under fatigue.

Week one, non-negotiable: beds and mattresses, one lamp per room, a shower curtain or screen if none exists, basic kitchen equipment, and something to sit on. Anything that lets the apartment function while you work out how you use it.

Month two onwards: wardrobes and storage, ordered once you know what has to be stored and against measurements you have taken rather than estimated. Then seating and the remaining lighting, chosen after a few weeks of knowing which seat gets used in the evening and where the light falls in February. Dining and decorative pieces last.

Two Luxembourg-specific notes. Storage matters more here than the floor area suggests, because the country's rhythm generates bulky possessions: winter tyres, ski equipment, bicycles and suitcases. Confirm the size of the cave at the viewing, and remember that many buildings prohibit storing tyres or bicycles in an underground parking space for fire-safety reasons. And check the building's rules before buying anything that has to be fixed to a wall or hung outside, because the facade is almost always common property even where the balcony is for your exclusive use.