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Price of houses goes up €10,000 in a year

21:29 28/07/2019

In the past year, Belgian houses have become on average 3.7% more expensive, which amounts to a rise of about €10,000. The figures come from the latest Notary Barometer, which tracks house prices.

The average price of a house in Belgium increased to €260,145 in the second quarter of this year. The average house in Flanders costs €281,954. Flemish Brabant is the most expensive province, with Limburg and West Flanders the cheapest.

Prices in Flanders are a lot lower than in Brussels, where houses cost on average €469,597, but more expensive than in Wallonia, where the average price is €194,531.

A similar trend applies to the price of apartments, which also increased by about €10,000 or 4.8% in a year. The differences between the regions follow the same pattern as with houses. In Flanders, the prices rose the most in West Flanders, which is mainly due to the real estate business at the coast. 

The general increase can be linked to another remarkable figure in the Notary Barometer: notaries have never before carried out more transactions than they have in the past three months. The number of transactions increased by 7.5% in just a year.

“The demand for real estate is very high,” Bart Van Opstal, spokesperson for notary federation Notaris.be, told public broadcaster VRT. “People want to profit from the low interest rates on mortgage loans and investors are more active because they are looking for a higher return than they get on their savings account.”

When looking at the broader picture, it seems property prices have risen by about 13% over a period of five years. “But you have to take account of the inflation in that period, which accounted for about 8%,” said Van Opstal. “That means the real estate prices increased by about 5%, or 1% per year, which is quite reasonable.”

However, he admits that notaries are closely monitoring the trend. “The number of transactions was particularly high in the last quarter, so that means extra pressure is put on the real estate market. We now have to analyse the next quarters to see if that trend continues.”

Photo: Belga/Benoit Doppagne

Written by Andy Furniere (Flanders Today)