They found that 5,000 hectares of land can be urbanised and that 3,750 out of those are located in a housing zone where 142,000 housing units can be created.
MPs Mars di Bartolomeo and Yves Cruchten from the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) requested additional information about this assessment in a parliamentary enquiry directed at Minister for Housing Henri Kox. In his official response (FR), he estimates that 400 of the 5,000 hectares can be used for building immediately.
This number considers all zones in the general building plans (PAG). 265 hectares are for housing zones while officials further found that 618 hectares are considered “building gaps”. 160 hectares that are currently being considered for development could get municipal approval right away, Minister Kox noted.
Why are all of these building lands not being used right away? According to Minister Kox, there are no legal or physical obstacles in 85% of cases, but private owners still decide to wait with construction projects, either because they hope for value increases or want to keep it as a financial security for their family.
The politician from the Greens further underlined the importance of having an adequate overview and concluded that several mechanisms are already in place to help accelerate planning and building procedures.
