Published on 07/08/2026 · Sources last reviewed: 07/08/2026 · Our method

Renting in Luxembourg

If you have read elsewhere that you need three months' deposit and must pay the whole agency commission, the information is out of date. Both rules changed on 1 August 2024, and the gap is quantifiable: one month's rent, plus half a commission.

What this page governs, and what it does not. Everything below applies to a lease over a home located in Luxembourg. A cross-border worker renting in Thionville, Arlon or Trier is governed by their own country's law: neither the two-month deposit nor the shared commission concerns them. These protections follow the home, not the employment contract.

What changed on 1 August 2024

Rule	Before	Since 01.08.2024
Rental deposit	3 months' rent	2 months maximum
Agency commission	borne by the tenant	split 50/50 between landlord and tenant
Form of the lease	written or verbal	written compulsory, with mandatory particulars
Rent increase	annual thirds rule	+ 10% at most, every two years
Rent cap	unchanged — 5% a year of the capital invested in the property
House sharing	unregulated	single contract + written sharing pact; 3 months' notice

Sources: Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, statement of 10.07.2024; law of 23 July 2024 (Mémorial A No 311), in force 1 August 2024. Consulted 07.08.2026.

A deposit-return procedure was also introduced, with precise deadlines and a penalty for non-compliance.

What you pay on signing day

Three items, and only one is negotiable:

the rental deposit, capped at two months' rent;
half the agency commission, if there is an agency;
the first month's rent.

We publish no commission amount, and that is deliberate. The 50/50 split is a rule of law; the amount of the commission follows market practice and is set by no text. Claiming “one month plus VAT” would be an invented figure that would quietly age. Take the one you are quoted, and halve it.

The rent subsidy is closed to cross-border workers

It is the same shape as the impatriate regime: a real, visible aid, inaccessible to those who look for it first. It fails on three conditions at once:

a right of residence of more than three months in Luxembourg;
registration in the national register of natural persons;
a home located on Luxembourg territory, on the private market.

A cross-border worker meets none of them. For a resident, the financial condition is that the monthly rent excluding charges exceeds 25% of the household's net income; the aid “may vary between €10 and €520 a month” depending on composition and income.

Source: Guichet.lu, “Rent subsidy”, page updated 19.02.2026, consulted 07.08.2026.

Getting your deposit back

It is the most frequent end-of-lease dispute, and the text is precise — article 5, paragraph 2bis of the 2006 law, inserted by the reform. If the exit inventory matches the entry one (normal wear and tear excepted) and the landlord claims neither rent arrears nor damage, then half the deposit must be returned within a maximum of one month. The balance follows the settlement of charges.

The landlord's delay is penalised, and the penalty accumulates. The amount still owed is “increased by a sum equal to 10 per cent of the monthly rent in principal, for each monthly period started late”. One day of delay triggers the first full period. On a rent of €1,500, three months of delay means €450 owed on top of the deposit.

Sources: law of 21 September 2006 on residential leases, articles 1 and 5, as amended by the law of 23 July 2024 (Mémorial A No 311). Texts read on the Legilux filestore on 07.08.2026.

What we have not established

The official consolidated text: we read the 2006 law AND its 2024 amending text, but not the consolidated version in one piece.
The article carrying the written lease on pain of nullity: two readings attributed it differently, and we do not settle it.
The scale of the rent subsidy, without which no amount can be projected.
The state rental guarantee for households without savings.
Lease registration and its tax treatment.