Living in Luxembourg: Focus on the City of Differdange

Adjacent to the French border, in the Chiers valley, Differdange is the third largest municipality of the Grand Duchy, with 28,000 inhabitants. Divided between the main town and the villages of Niederkorn to the north, Oberkorn to the east and Lasauvage, its dynamic population benefits from a preserved living environment. Indeed, you will appreciate its forests, its culture and its natural reserves which occupy 60% of the territory.

A large industrial city now open to the tertiary sector, Differdange is a booming municipality with a first-rate cultural and sporting offer. Less than 45 minutes from the capital via the A4, it is waiting for you to design a property project that will live up to your dreams, combining quality of life with a reasonable investment!

Moving to Differdange

The municipality has made a success of its transformation and now offers a number of advantages for families wishing to write a new chapter in their lives. In terms of services and leisure activities, young people and adults benefit from first-class facilities and structures.

A large range of educational infrastructures

Differdange has no less than 5 basic schools. And over the years, other establishments have been added to the offer of the municipality. For instance, the State has created an international state school which allows children and adolescents to follow a complete curriculum (primary and secondary): the objective is that each pupil can succeed and develop independently of the language spoken at home...

The Mathias Adam high school offers general and technical courses. And higher education has not been forgotten: in recent years, the private university LUNEX (specialising in sports and health) and a branch of the Miami University Dolibois European Center attended by young Americans have been opened. A structure that makes local life richer... Finally, the École Nature de Lasauvage is a major regional centre for environmental education.

Young people and adults alike will find something to satisfy their needs in Differdange. Numerous hiking and cycling trails allow you to enjoy the green environment. The Aquasud swimming pool also offers fitness rooms, wellness areas, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and other recreational facilities.

Culture is present too: Differdange looks good!

There's never a dull moment in Differdange. Culture has a prominent place here. The Aalt Stadhaus centre, inaugurated in 2014, houses a concert hall, a library and a music school. The Hall O hosts fairs, markets and association gatherings. Exhibitions are regularly held in the Espace H20 in the former Oberkorn water reservoir and in the Hall Paul Wurt, a converted power station.

Indeed, several former industrial sites have been given new uses, as is also the case with the Salle des Pendus, the former miners' changing room at Lasauvage, which is also used for exhibitions. The Saintignon castle houses a museum dedicated to local history. The Grôven mine, closed in 1957 and now a museum, provides an insight into the daily life of the miners. And eventually, the open-air museum Minett Park also includes the Fond-de-Gras (former workers' village of Lasauvage), the former open-cast mine “Giele Botter” and the Celtic oppidum of Titelberg. But perhaps you would prefer to take a ride on an old mining train?

In another register, the Luxembourg Science Centre combines entertainment with the discovery of new technologies, while the Eugène Pesch Museum presents impressive collections of fossils and minerals.

Then there are the parks, synonymous with bucolic interludes in the heart of the town: Gerlache with its playgrounds, the Chiers and its pedestrian paths at the crossroads of Differdange and Oberkorn, but also the Edmond-Dune and Um Bierg parks, which combine floral diversity and a bucolic atmosphere.

 

Luxembourg real estate: Prices in Differdange

Moving to Differdange to take advantage of its green surroundings is a choice that many Luxembourgers have made. 375 households bought a flat in 2021. By moving to this municipality offering a dynamic economy, you will benefit from a good transport network and a preserved environment. The real estate market in Differdange remains reasonable.

For example, you can expect to pay 7,079 euros per square metre for a built flat and a little more than 7,885 euros for a VEFA (Vente en Etat Futur d'Achèvement) flat.

If you prefer to rent, estimate an average price per square metre of 23.87 euros.

 

The history of Differdange

If a Cistercian abbey was established as early as the Middle Ages, which has now become a rest home, Differdange mainly developed in modern times around its seigniorial castle, which now houses the American university centre.

After the French Revolution, during which massacres were perpetrated in the municipality, it was the mining and steel industry boom that marked Differdange during the last third of the 19th century.

Like the Longwy basin, on the other side of the border, the demography reflects this evolution. The population rose from less than 4,000 inhabitants in 1890 to almost 18,000 in 1930!

Known as the “City of Iron”, it had to undergo a reconversion after the crisis of the 1980s. It still keeps an important unit of the Arcelor-Mittal group, employing 700 people. The other sites have been reconverted or have become tourist centres of a new kind, not forgetting the experiment carried out in Lasauvage, declared a pilot village for the preservation and restoration of industrial housing.

The controlled urbanization, the preservation of green lungs and the establishment of cultural and university centres make Differdange an example of “good living” in the Grand Duchy. It is just waiting for you!