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Ixelles most expensive place to buy a house in Belgium

19:45 24/02/2020

Median house and apartment prices over the last five years show that Brussels is the most expensive of Belgium’s three regions in which to buy a home, with Ixelles the most dear municipality. The figures have just been released by Fednot, the national federation of notaries.

While Sint-Martens-Latem in East Flanders has long been known as the most expensive place to buy a house, that’s because home price indexes generally only look at the top 25% of prices, according to Fednot. When looking at average prices, Ixelles has been the most expensive over the last  five years.

In Ixelles, the average price of a house from 2015 to 2019 was €635,000, some €22,500 more than in Sint-Martens-Latem. What’s worse is that the average price in Ixelles has jumped a colossal 38% over the five years. That’s an average increase of €175,000.

As an example, if you bought your home for €400,000 in Ixelles in early 2015, you could sell it today for €552,000, even without having carried out improvements. According to Fednot’s figures, one-quarter of all houses sold in Ixelles last year were more than €920,000.

All the expats’ fault

As you might have expected, Fednot is blaming the expats for the skyrocketing prices in Ixelles, and the well-heeled French in particular. The municipality is also being blamed for nudging prices up in the neighbouring communes. In Saint-Gilles, house prices have risen by 10.4% since 2015, and in Forest by nearly 9%.

While Ixelles has the highest average prices for houses and apartments overall, it is in fact third when looking at apartments alone. Knokke on the coast is number one, with a median price of €395,000, and Wezembeek-Oppem, just across the border from Brussels is second at €309,500.

Ixelles is number one when it comes to houses, followed by Sint-Martens-Latem at €612,500 and Woluwe-Saint-Pierre at €582,500. Seven of the 10 most expensive municipalities in the country are in Brussels.

While the capital-region has the highest median price (€410,000) compared to the two other regions, prices in Evere, Ganshoren and Brussels-City have actually dropped slightly over the last year. Brussels-City is the only place, however, where house prices are less than in 2015. It’s a lot, in fact – prices have dropped by 16.5% in the commune.

The cheapest municipality to buy a house in Brussels is Molenbeek, with an average price of €279,500.

Photo courtesy Luxevastgoed.be

Written by Lisa Bradshaw