Introducing high-density shared housing in Luxembourg: Governance of a pioneering project in a post-industrial context

Post-industrial contexts undergoing urban regeneration processes increasingly witness the development of specific housing forms seen as a means to attract young and highly-educated cohorts who would contribute to redeveloping deprived areas. From the real estate market perspective, there is an interest in developing less regulated housing forms in often cheaper areas for target groups expected to be less demanding about the quality of accommodation and the built environment. Drawing on the model of Purpose-Built Student Accommodation, high-density shared housing projects are part of the types of new residential and mixed-use developments that have served this purpose.
In Luxembourg, the first project of this kind was developed in a municipality situated along the Southern industrial axis of the country, which has been shifting towards a knowledge-based economy. This transition has been driven by the conversion of the Belval former industrial site to host the premises of the newly created University of Luxembourg (2003) as well as public research institutes, other public organisations and national administration services, and secondary headquarters of financial institutions. The redevelopment of Belval has progressively attracted students and young professionals in the surrounding municipalities. Nevertheless, a significant share of students and workers still commute from other parts of the country and from the cross-border region, especially since Belval is located along the French border.
The high-density shared housing project studied in depth in this paper was initiated by the municipality, yet built by a consortium of private foreign developers on a former industrial plot. Interestingly, the project includes a substantial number of ‘co-living’ units (here, semi-independent units with communal spaces on each floor) all managed by a mainstream property manager. However, part of these co-living units were sold piece by piece to private investors who were ensured a fixed yield, and the other units belong to the municipality and are rented out to visiting students from a foreign University.
This paper unfolds the interests and roles of all these stakeholders (including the property manager’s role in distancing investors and tenants, hence reducing these micro-units to pure assets) and the governance arrangements underpinning the project development. It further situates the case study as an enabler for launching co-living as a real estate and developer's product in Luxembourg, and an inspiration for similar projects in other parts of the country, yet with a shift in ownership towards professional investors (as observed in other contexts). I also reflect on the possible shift towards support for landlordism as a sign of hyper-commodification, as well as what prioritising accommodation for visiting students over locally-enrolled, longer-term students may mean in terms of twofold commodification of housing and higher education.