Students who are unable to obtain accommodation in Luxembourg must look for accommodation on the private market, which is currently not tailored to students or young workers. Students find it very difficult to find housing on the private market. For instance, landlords often reject applicants without permanent contracts. However, as studying and working full-time is by definition incompatible, students are undoubtedly a vulnerable and disadvantaged category on the housing market. Though doctoral students are employed on fixed-term contracts, they are also rejected on grounds of not having CDIs, when it comes to the private market.
This problem concerns students of all nationalities: regular students, university exchange students, students who are Luxembourgers living too far from the Belval or Kirchberg campuses, European students moving to Luxembourg for their studies, as well as non-European students who must, in accordance with the laws in force, live on the territory of the Grand Duchy in order to obtain their residence permit. The University of Luxembourg attracts many international students and therefore many students who need accommodation. Thus, measures must be taken in order to ensure solutions for current students and to allow the University to continue to attract more students and doctoral students in the future, knowing that the number of students increases every year.
However, there is room for change, a public petition has been submitted, and if it obtains 4500 signatures, the issue will be discussed at the Luxembourgish parliament.
1) Implementing tax reductions for landlords who would like to rent their property to students.
As explained, most landlords refuse to rent to students without a work contract. We therefore propose to provide tax incentives to landlords to rent their properties to the student population.
2) Create a guarantee for the deposit for students.
While guarantees for deposits already exist, we propose to create a specialised organisation for students, which also allows students to obtain a guarantee for the rental deposit without considering their household, thus allowing students who do not receive support from their parents to have the possibility to live closer to their course campus.
3) Encourage the construction of student residences close to the campus.
While the University has a limited housing stock, it is important to encourage builders to construct student residences close to university campuses.
4) Allow non-EU students to live outside the borders of the Grand Duchy during their studies.
To allow non-European students and doctoral candidates who are currently unable to do so to live outside the borders of the Grand Duchy for the duration of their studies only. Given the difficulties mentioned, it would also be preferable to allow non-European students to live outside the Grand Duchy for the duration of their studies and thus to live in less expensive cities such as Trier, Audun le Tiche etc.
You can sign the petition here: https://www.petitions.lu/petition/2525.
(Feel free to write to us at contact@ccsa-uni.lu if you need help.)
This petition is being jointly proposed by mulitiple students, clubs, associations, and delegations at the University.