Ten Percent Empty

On Saturday, the Left (Déi Lénk) staged a small protest in Esch-sur-Alzette to draw attention to vacant properties. The demonstration centred on a building on Avenue de la Gare that has stood unused for ten years. It is owned by the state.[1]

The building contains 12 bedrooms. It was originally built to house foreign workers and later used as a residential centre. Then, a decade ago, it was emptied and left. No renovation, no repurposing, no sale. Just emptiness, in a country where rents rose 4.4% last year and young residents cannot find anywhere to live.[1]

According to the Esch branch of Déi Lénk, nearly 10% of properties in the city are currently vacant. The co-spokesperson noted that making better use of this existing housing stock could provide enough homes for those on waiting lists for affordable accommodation. The building on Avenue de la Gare would need extensive work, including energy-efficiency renovations, before it could be brought back into use. But the first step is not renovation. It is the political decision to act.[1]

The protest was small. A few people, a building, a point to make. But the numbers are not small. Ten percent vacancy in a city of 36,000 people, during a housing crisis, during a heatwave that drove record crowds to swimming lakes because many cannot afford to travel, is not a rounding error. It is a policy failure.[2]

The Housing Observatory reported this week that the market has "stabilised." Perhaps it has. But a market that stabilises while one in ten homes in its second city sits empty is not a market that is working. It is a market that has learned to tolerate waste.