Launched six months ago "Immostats by atHome" - the paper edition of the real estate website atHome.lu - gets for its second issue a new lifting in content and name. "On the face of the magazine's success in bookstores, we decided to enrich its content and to rename it 'atHome magazine'", explained Patrick Kersten, managing Director of Synapse Internet Services, a web publishing agency who also owns and manages atHome.lu.
Indeed, the new feature includes two special reports: a complete analysis of the residential real estate prices in Luxembourg, by atHome. And a practical and fiscal vade mecum of the border countries, carried out by Deloitte.
"The real estate market in Luxembourg is at a turning point", Patrick Kersten said. For the first time in five years, the sell price average of houses remains unchanged to 0.4%. And according to the study, the value of houses comprising three or four bedrooms (which account for 73% of the houses segment) have faced no major changes in the last six months.
"This shows that households' financing capacity has been affected by the latest raises of interests rates. We definitely reached a limit", Patrick Kersten comments. Nevertheless, the mean value of a house for sell still peaks at about 554,600 euro in 2007, according to atHome's estimations.
Rental yields reshuffled
For the same period, the prices of apartments for sell continued to climb, with an increase of 3.4% during the 6 last months. This mostly concerns flats of zero to two bedrooms, with a price average of 324,500 euro. "The rental market faced a stability in 2007, with a rent average of 655 euro for a studio and of 1,125 euros for a two-bedroom apartment.
The study highlights another turning point: investing into the residential real estate market has led to mitigated results. In fact, rental yield sharply decreased during the last five years, down to -38% for apartments and to -58% for houses.
"It is a new situation: the most exclusive areas do not give the best yields anymore", Patrick Kersten said. Surprisingly, Luxembourg Cents and Gare overtook Belair and Limpertsberg on the top of the best performances list.
On fiscal tour
Analyzing the real estate market in Luxembourg shall not exclude the situation in the border countries, as more residents of the Grand-Duchy tend to emigrate. In this new issue, Deloitte publishes a comparative study that takes into account all fees, taxes as well as the possible benefits, premium and deductions in Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and in France and which might affect the whole cost of a property acquisition.
If this vade mecum aims to be practical and concise, it nevertheless leads to an unsurprising conclusion: the tax diversities within the Greater Region make all attempts of comparison difficult. If you're not a rock and roll singer or a movie star, forget about fiscal arbitrage!