It is not only house prices that are growing at an alarming rate. According to JLL, a real estate group, average rents on street shop units rose 15%, from €130 per square metre in 2018 to €150 in 2020. Assistant director of the country’s retail federation, the CLC, Claude Bizjak, examines how we got here and some possible solutions.
Jess Bauldry: How do you explain the rapid rise in rents on shop units in Luxembourg?
Claude Bizjak: One development we see, especially in Luxembourg, is that in different areas it’s real estate [projects] that try to drag in some retailers, sometimes with questionable figures. They sign a big rent with a long contract and it [the shop site] doesn’t generate the footfall announced.
Jess Bauldry: Tell us more about the technology and how it came about.
Marc Jacobs: People tend to touch masks all the time and move them, you name it. If your mask has been contaminated on the outside by the environment or other people it means you’re at constant risk of infecting yourself and other people.
It was identified as a real issue by several hospital directors in Luxembourg. They said if you can really develop a technology that could basically ensure that you deactivate the viruses within minutes of them landing on the outside of the mask that would be of real value in the fight against covid.