How can we explain that this market share of new apartments, on a Belgian scale, has been almost halved in such a short time, while the demand for new housing remains very strong – particularly motivated by energy and environmental issues? ? “Several elements can be put forward, points out Renaud Grégoire, notary in Wanze and spokesperson for the sector federation, Fednot. One: the high interest rates, until the last quarter of 2024, slowed down a lot of real estate developers who had to pay up to 5% interest on their lines of credit, while this rate was only 1% a few years ago. Two: private individuals, particularly from the middle class, who traditionally used real estate as an investment – by purchasing a property which they then rented out – have somewhat disappeared from the market, with the high interest rates. In any case, I have not encountered many in 2024. Three: the announced drop in registration fees, mainly in Wallonia where they went from 12.5 to 3% at the start of 2025, added another layer and made new housing (with a VAT rate of 21%) less competitive“.
Reduction of registration fees in Wallonia to 3%: “This especially favors high incomes. We need a ceiling”
When we add to these elements the delays in the issuance of building permits, the increase in the price of construction materials and the record number of working days lost due to bad weather in the sector in 2024, we easily understand the dip that knows new real estate and there is no end in sight. “And this crisis is putting pressure on the entire rental market, even for existing apartments.” worries the spokesperson for notaries.
2. The recovery? We have not seen it in 2024
The second negative element concerns the level of real estate activity over the past year – and the evolution of prices, if we place ourselves on the sellers’ side. Two conclusions stand out: the recovery of the real estate sector did not occur in 2024 – after a year 2023 during which the number of transactions fell by more than 15%; and when inflation is taken into account, homeowners have lost money over the past year.
Concerning the number of transactions, the decline however became slight in 2024: -0.7% compared to 2023, a terrible year for the sector. And very few signs of recovery appeared during the second part of the year since the drop in transactions was more than 4% in the first half. Finally, it was in Wallonia that the decline was most marked (-1%), “perhaps due to the announcement of the reduction in the registration fee tax which came into force on January 1, 2025”estimate the notaries, who specify: “It is in Walloon Brabant and Luxembourg that the drop in activity was most marked: -5.6% in these two provinces..
-This slowing activity had, logically, an effect on sales prices. Overall, for Belgium, the increase was 2.2% in 2024 for residential houses (at an average price of around 330,000 euros) and 2.5% for apartments (at an average price of around 271,000 euros). ). “If we take into account the difference in inflation between 2024 and 2023 (around 3%), this is a price drop of 0.8% for houses and 0.5% for the apartments”specifies the Federation of Notaries.
How have property prices evolved over the last 10 years? Here is the answer, municipality by municipality
Wallonia, poor relation of real estate in 2024
Even without taking inflation into account, prices in Wallonia fell in 2024, not only for residential houses (-0.8%) but also for apartments (-0.3%), which shows that the south of the country was the poor relation of Belgian real estate in 2024. It was in the province of Luxembourg that the drop in prices was most marked for house prices (-3.8%) and in the province of Namur for that of apartments (-3.5%),
Finally, let us point out that Brussels obviously remains the most expensive province in Belgium for residential houses, ahead of Flemish Brabant and Walloon Brabant. And West Flanders (with the Coast) has the highest average price for apartments, ahead of Flemish Brabant and Brussels.
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