Living in Luxembourg

Hello everybody,

I have been living in Luxembourg for two years and I strongly recommend to everybody:  AVOID LUXEMBOURG IF YOU CAN!!!

This country has absolutely nothing to offer. Only a depression for you (and for your family).
The weather is probably the worst in Europe. It rains, and rains, and rains all the year round. You live in constant darkness. Streets are empty. People stay indoors. Socializing is very limited. In general, luxembourgish society is closed and does not allow foreigners to integrate. Half of the people working in Luxembourg are either foreigners or french/belgian/german commuters. So, as a foreigner, you are no one special.
You are treated as a second-grade citizen. Luxembourgish are interested only in your money. It will be you who will rent their overpriced properties, which are far from being of good quality or in a nice location. You will not be able to buy the apartment yourself - the prices are so prohibitive, that even couples with good income can not afford to buy an average flat/house.

The Luxembourg city is an extremely expensive village. And it is sad. Sad buildings, sad people and sad life. Depression, darkness and artificial culture characterize this place.
There are no mountains here or close to here. There is no sea. There is just one sad lake and a dirty river.

According to the statistics, Luxembourg is supposed to be the richest country in the world. But it is far from being so. The high GDP per capita is caused by the fact that half of the work force commutes from abroad or does not have permanent residence here. Locals however think that because of this misleading economic indicator, they can ask horrendous prices for any service they provide. Rents are equal to Paris, New York or London. One luxembourgish pensioner showed me a studio of 35 m2 which he wanted to rent for 1000 EUR. I started to laugh about the price. The studio was 10 km from the centre. I asked him why is the price so high? His response was: "Look at Paris and London!" Luxembourg is not Paris or London!! Luxembourg is more similar to Minsk than to any other EU capital. Guys, there are cows, sheep and goats in the city centre, in the same area where the price of an apartment per m2 exceeds 6000 EUR. This is not normal!

Luxembourgish government protects interests of its citizens by blocking the area of land available for construction. It attracts the banking and investment fund industry by advantageous conditions. The banks save on taxes but their lux employees have to pay the price. The population density is lower than in neighboring Belgium or Germany, but the prices are two to four times higher. Many locals own big ugly houses which they divided into several flats. These flats are then rented expensively and with very unfavorable conditions. Consumer protection is also very poor here - as a tenant you have basically no rights - the reason is simple - most of the tenants are foreigners.

Expensive living, intensified by the provincial atmosphere, extremely bad weather, uninteresting landscape, and depressed people makes you think only about one thing: ESCAPE.

I recommend to all Banks, Investment Funds and International Institutions to avoid setting up a business here if they consider the satisfaction of their staff important. I also recommend to all the people who were offered a job here to avoid this trap.

Each of us has just one life, so why to waste it in Luxembourg.

Foxo.

Last edited by Foxo (2009-02-15 14:36:49)

We've been living in Lux for 6 months now (We're from the U.S)So far I've found it a very pleasant and easy place to live.  It is an international city where you hear a huge number of languages spoken. 

It is clean and beautiful.  Lux City is a working city, people commute from Germany, France and Belgium to work, so it's not exactly known for it's night life.  But we have 2 small young kids so that is fine with us. There are lots of great parks.  There are 2 international schools and one European school.  It is very safe. 

Everyone, including our Luxembourgish neighbors, has been very friendly.  As English speakers (we're learning French) there is definitely a language barrier that prevents us from really knowing the people and the culture.  That is the unfortunate part.  However, Lux is full of expats and foreigners so we've met many other English speaking people which has been nice.

Yes, it is expensive.  We've found the rents here a bit lower than Seattle but the cable, internet, car fees, etc. are all higher. 

There aren't any animals in the city center

Thanks for the news. We (my wife and I) are still going back and forth about the idea. Like anywhere else, it is what you make of it. I did 8 years in Istanbul so it is difficult to scare me. I see homes to rent online that look great from here! The international school looks like it would be better then the schools here in Georgia, at least on the web site. (I doubt it has lice issues and meth problems from illegal immigrants like we deal with now on a daily basis - and I am talking about an elementary school) The cost is what it is.

Hopefully we will find the opportunity attractive enough to make a move. I would love to drive the kids to Paris for a weekend or something like that. If any of you know a good web site for house hunting by all means please send it along.

Thanks for the help!

I am a 30-something American professor and I will be in Luxembourg on a Fulbright Fellowship in the spring of 2010. I need to find a place to live from FEb. 1 through end of May 2010. I have been told by people at the university of Luxembourg that it will be virtually impossible to find anything for that length of time.

I am hoping that someone on this forum has information on finding a furnished place to live for 4 months. I can be contacted at educlosorsello@gmai.com

Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello, Ph.D.

The accomodation is expensive - I chose to live in FRance and commute - but other than that Luxy is clean, safe, relaxed, cultured, friendly, good health care, good education, excellent publc transport, multi-cultural .... apart from the accommodation there are only advantages of being here