buying property in Belgium

Your notaire will explain it to you.

You need a notaire lined up from day zero of the buying process because here, once you make an offer for a property and the seller accepts it, you are both committed to the deal unless the offer contained conditions (usually concerning the ability to get a suitable loan) which cannot subsequently be fulfilled. It does mean that if you make an unconditional offer and it is accepted you cannot be gazumped.

I believe that it varies according to where you are buying.
When we bought our place we were classed as first time buyers even though my wife had previously owned property here. As the sale of her former place had been completed more than 2 years earlier the slate was wiped clean.