Home insurance in Luxembourg: tenant or owner, what do you really need to insure?

Compulsory? No. Unavoidable? Yes.

Home insurance is not legally compulsory in Luxembourg. In practice, it is unavoidable: your bank will require it to grant a mortgage, and almost every lease imposes it on tenants, with a certificate to present before the keys are handed over. Doing without it means carrying the risk of a fire or water damage alone, in a country where property values and rebuilding costs are well above those of its neighbours.

Tenant: tenant’s liability and your belongings

You do not have to insure the building, which is the owner’s responsibility. Two things concern you: your liability towards the landlord, the “risques locatifs” (fire, water damage caused to the dwelling), and your own belongings, furniture, electronics, clothing. Insurers offer tenant plans that combine both; Baloise goes as far as a 100% online flat insurance, GoodStart, with an immediate price. Order of magnitude recorded in August 2026: €250 to €450 a year for a tenant.

Owner: the building, the contents, and climate risks

Every offer on the market covers the core of fire, water damage, storm and glass breakage. The real differences lie in natural disasters: Baloise includes flooding from its Essentielle plan, whereas it is an option at LALUX (climate risks) and at AXA (Sérénité Max, which adds landslide); at Foyer, it belongs to the “useful” covers of the modular mozaïk system. After the floods of recent years in the Alzette valley and in Echternach, this is the first point to check. Count on €500 to €750 a year for a 150 m² house (August 2026 survey), and look closely at sustainable equipment: dedicated packs for solar panels and charging points at Baloise, automatic cover at AXA.

The underinsurance trap

In the event of a claim, the insurer checks that the sum insured matches the real value of the home and its contents. If it is too low, the proportional rule applies: property insured at 70% of its value is only compensated for 70% of the damage, even for a small claim. Contents worth €60,000 insured for €40,000 will only be compensated at two thirds. Two simple protections: fill in the insurer’s valuation grid, often by number of rooms, which secures the sum insured; and check that the policy automatically indexes the capital from year to year. Also declare improvements that add value: fitted kitchen, solar panels, renovation.

Moving in? The checklist

• Request the certificate before the keys are handed over: landlords almost always ask for it.
• Start the policy on the day of the keys, not the day of the inventory.
• Tenant: check that tenant’s liability and contents are both covered.
• Owner: check flooding, new-value cover and the indexation of capital.
• Portable items (laptop, bike, instruments): covered worldwide at LALUX and Foyer, to be checked elsewhere.

To compare the offers of Foyer, LALUX, AXA and Baloise on these criteria, see our Luxembourg home insurance comparison; our home insurance page summarises the guarantees to examine. If you are arriving from abroad, the guide for new arrivals puts home insurance in the order of formalities, and cross-border workers will find their particular case in our dedicated article.