2023-05-11 08:49:08
Since last summer, the European Central Bank has started raising its interest rates, marking the end of cheap loans. On the real estate market, the consequences were not long in coming. We are slowly but surely witnessing a transition from buying to renting property.
Belgium is therefore experiencing an evolution, moving from a market of owners to a market of tenants. The reason is overwhelmingly due to higher interest rates. The latter went from around 1.5% to between 3 and 4% in the space of a year, which led to growing difficulties for prospective buyers to take out a mortgage loan.
An example: in the first two months of this year, half as many mortgage loans were granted compared to the same period in 2022. And the other side of this coin is renting which has gained in popularity: the Belgians rent twice as many properties. It’s almost a revolution in our country, where more than 70% of the population are owners.
Rental prices on the rise due to higher demand
Candidates who turn more to rentals, this also has consequences on prices. The supply remaining the same, but the demand for rental increasing, the price of rents went up.
Over one year, the rental market increased by an average of 10%, while rents were already rather high. “In 2022, prices for a 100 square meter apartment in Brussels were around €1400 per month. In Antwerp, you were at €1300. In Ghent, you were at €1100. And in Liège, you were at €960″, explains Olivier Carrette, managing director of the UPSI, the Union of professionals in the real estate sector.
The latter also confirms the price increase: “We have also seen this increase between 5 and 10% in the price of rents.”
Differences between town and country
However, the figures quoted above remain averages. Depending on where the accommodation is located, the rent can change, which explains why there are more tenants in large cities: In Brussels, for example, 60% of the inhabitants are tenants. In Ghent and Antwerp, 55%, and in Liège, 50%. And it is also naturally in the cities, where the demand is the greatest, that we pay the most.
Between Liège and Brussels, the rent for a studio can thus go from simple to double. Brussels is, in April 2023, the Belgian city with the highest rents. Count €948.8 on average for a studio.
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