Statec no longer measures how far a home is from the capital in kilometres, but in minutes by car. By combining this new method with Statec’s latest property figures, Autotouring has done the maths. Each extra minute of driving is linked to a price around €7,000 lower for an existing 80 m² flat.
Mersch and Esch-Belval sit at similar distances from Luxembourg City. Yet according to the data used by Statec, driving into the centre of the capital between 8am and 9am takes 29.8 minutes on average from Mersch, compared with 39.1 minutes from Belval. Kockelscheuer, only ten or so kilometres away, clocks up 27 minutes, largely because of congestion. From Limpertsberg, 9.7 minutes is enough. Anyone who drives into the capital for work every morning knows these differences well. They now count in the official housing statistics.
From kilometres to minutes
To track how prices change, Statec cannot simply compare the average sale price from one quarter to the next. If more large flats are sold in a given period, the average rises even though prices have not actually gone up. The institute therefore uses a calculation that estimates what each feature of a home is worth (floor area, new or existing, cellar, parking space) and how much its location adds or takes away.
Until now, for flats, location was measured by the distance in kilometres between the municipality and Luxembourg City. The method was simple, but it ignored traffic jams. Since June 2026, Statec has used average car travel time instead, supplied by the Ministry of Mobility and Public Works. Travel time is also used to calculate prices for existing houses. The change is set out in a study published in September.
Around €7,000 a minute
According to the study, two identical flats are not worth the same if one of them is a minute further from the capital by car. In 2025, each extra minute was linked to a price around 1.2% lower.
To turn this percentage into euros, we applied it to the latest prices published by Statec and the Observatoire de l’Habitat in Le Logement en chiffres in September 2026. Between July 2025 and June 2026, an existing flat of 70 to 89 m² sold for an average of €7,534 per square metre. For 80 m², or around €600,000, one extra minute of travel corresponds to just over €7,000. Ten minutes amount to around €68,000. In new-builds, where the square metre costs more, a minute is worth close to €9,000. The amount varies by region. Based on the average price per square metre for existing flats of all sizes, a minute would represent around €6,500 in the canton of Esch-sur-Alzette and around €9,400 in the canton of Luxembourg.
Between Mersch and Belval, the gap linked to travel time would therefore be around €64,000 for the same existing 80 m² flat. This is an order of magnitude, as the calculation is done municipality by municipality.
This figure is not the price of traffic jams alone, however. The calculation makes no distinction between minutes lost in congestion and minutes spent driving normally. Above all, travel time also reflects everything that comes with being close to the capital, such as jobs, services and amenities. Nor does Statec prove that minutes matter more than kilometres. The two usually go hand in hand, and the new calculation explains prices only very slightly better than the old one, a little more clearly in recent years.
Little effect on the index
The price of a minute is not fixed. It rose between 2015 and 2020, from around 1.2% to 1.6%, before returning to its starting level from 2023. At today’s prices, the 2020 rate would put a minute at nearly €9,600. For all these years, Statec used the same travel times, those from 2022. So it is not the measured journey that has changed, but the weight the market gives it.
On the overall price trend published each quarter, the change of method makes little difference. It has more effect on flats bought off-plan, which still sell in small numbers. For Statec, the real benefit lies elsewhere. Unlike distance, travel time changes with roads, roadworks and traffic, and it will be updated every year.
In Luxembourg, time spent on the road is not only paid for in frayed nerves and fuel. It also shows up in the price of homes.
Trains and buses left out
Statec justifies the switch to minutes partly by pointing to the quality of transport links and connections. Yet the measure only looks at the car, during the morning rush hour. Trains, buses and trams do not count. For a household that commutes to the capital by public transport, two municipalities with the same drive time can offer very different situations.
Only the capital counts as a destination. Esch-sur-Alzette and the Nordstad, the country’s other employment hubs, are left out of the calculation. Statec itself lists public transport connectivity among the ways it could improve its model.
Traffic jams in the property tax next?
The travel time used by Statec is the one set out in the property tax reform. Tabled in 2022, the bill was split in two in July 2025, and the property tax part now continues as bill 8082A. In the version amended by the government, travel time to central Luxembourg remains one of the criteria used to set the value of a plot of land.
According to Statec, this travel time is due to be updated every year. In theory, a new road or persistent congestion could therefore eventually affect the tax. The bill is still being examined in committee in the Chamber of Deputies. If it is passed, the government plans for it to come into force on 1 January 2029, with the first tax calculated under the new rules in 2030.
