"Our model enables people to buy a home who would otherwise never be able to"

Lëtzebuerger Journal: Guy Entringer, you have been Director of the Société Nationale des Habitations à Bon Marché since 2008. The SNHBM is a key player in the creation of affordable housing. However, it is also a public limited company ("Société anonyme", S.A.) in public ownership. What does that mean in concrete terms? Does it have to be in the black?

Guy Entringer: Firstly, we are a public housing developer that endeavours to build and manage affordable housing. Secondly, we are in fact an S.A. This means that we received start-up capital at a certain point in time and are trying to manage this money. As the economist within a public limited company, you naturally try to stay in the profit zone. Our model has to remain profitable in the long term.

Although there have also been losses before. In 2023, it was 5.4 million euros.

In the history of SNHBM, we have recorded a profit in more than 100 years and a loss in one year. I think the company is on a very solid financial footing, which is also important in order to invest in future projects.

Does SNHBM pay dividends to its shareholders, including the state?

In the past 20 years that I have been working for SNHBM, no dividends have been paid out. The shareholders have been satisfied with that so far.

In 2024, the upper income limits for the purchase of "logement à coût modéré" and "logement abordable" were raised, meaning that 70 and 80 per cent of the population are now eligible for these houses and appartments. According to the government, however, this is a temporary measure. From the SNHBM's point of view, is it necessary to keep up those measures even today?

This adjustment was extremely important for us because people were finding it very difficult to get loans from the bank due to the rise in interest rates, which meant that we had a lot of unsold flats.

Today, given the geopolitical situation, it is impossible to say whether we will find ourselves in a similar situation again.

Today, SNBHM has practically no unsold dwellings (under construction or in planning, ed.). However, I would like to emphasise that we never had any completed housing that was empty.