Franz Fayot submitting reform on agency fees, stating they raise house prices. Lobby group pushes back, claiming price increases are because of failed policies, not fees, accuses government of populism. | Lux Times

6 comments

  2. What a bunch of window dressing. How about starting by raising the belleg act amount (which hasn’t been update in over one (or two?) decades? Surely, the government will help first time buyers!?

  3. Agencies raise prices and it’s a fact. Just saw an ad yesterday for an abandoned old house located near Diekirch that you cannot live in, located on a 4 ar land. The agency asks nearly 1 million for it. The price of the 4 ar land would be around 100.000 max there. The house needs to be destroyed and rebuilt or completely refurbished. So the agency asks 1 million for something that is worth max 100k. That’s what you call a scam.

  5. Although I feel no pity for the real state agencies, here they are right. This is just populism from the government to excuse their inaction in controlling the escalation of the prices.

    It’s easy to try to target several self-employed or small businesses in real estate, but it’s hard to create measures that stop investment funds to buy like crazy or create measures that hurt plot owners that have no incentive to make pots available.

  6. Real estate agencies – I thought the internet would do to them what Netflix did to DVD rental stores. But here they are, still thriving.

    It’s not so much on the sales side that I feel like they are not worth what they are paid, more so on the lettings side. The tenant pays them a month rent upfront in fees. For what? They provide a tenant-finding service to the landlord, why isn’t the landlord paying that?

    Then during your tenancy, if you need them for, say, a repair, expect weeks of feet-dragging, ‘unable to contact the landlord’ ‘our handyman has no availability’ ect.

    And then at the end of the tenancy, when the landlord decides to keep your deposit to use as a flat-renovation fund on some trumped up cleaning charges, guess what? They don’t pick up the phone and are in no way involved.

    However, do agencies cause high property prices? No, those are set by supply and demand. Luxembourg attracts high-income workers who drive up demand, not enough is built, reducing supply. , And of course ECB monetary policy fuelling the bonfire by keeping rates low and adding liquidity to the system.

    Not much any real estate agent can do about that.

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