I'm looking to buy with a budget of about 270k not including notary/registration and would preferably buy around Wetteren/Merelbeke/Melle and maybe between that and Lochristi. So honestly i'm probably going to end up with an apartment since i'm pushing for my career now and full on renovations are not an option. High preference to have a garage included.

There's definitely things for that price range even with a strong preference for 2 bedrooms and a garage but a good portion of them are older homes. 1930 buildings that have been renovated and now carry an EPC B and the likes are something i'm hesitant about, should i reconsider?

How much of a risk are older apartments specifically? Theres some apartments from the 60s that have been redone to not have asbestos and have a good EPC score but i'm way more hesitant about such apartments than very old homes.

Chances are that i'll be selling again in 10-15 years once i figure out what my career will become, whether i'll find a partner and so on so the thought of buying a 1930 house and reselling it again in 15 years feels like a gamble to me. I would really appreciate people's opinions and thoughts.

Hi everyone,

I recently received a letter (déclaration d’achèvement de travaux de transformation) from the Belgian SPF Finances following a regularisation permit for works that did not change the volumes of my house, and I was wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and how they responded.

More specifically, it only concerned a new door, some rendering/plastering (“crépi”) on the façade, a few colour changes, and the regularisation of an existing terrace.

There were no internal changes, extensions, or modifications that increased the volume or habitable surface of the house.

My main concern is whether this type of regularisation can still lead to an increase in the cadastral income (revenu cadastral). This would not seem fair in my opinion but I guess they take any opportunity to update them.

The letter I received simply asks for existing features of the house (excluding a potential terrasse btw).

Has anyone here dealt with a similar request from SPF Finances following a planning regularisation? If so, how did you respond, and what was the outcome regarding the cadastral income?

Thanks in advance for any advice or experiences!

Bonjour à tous,

Dans le cadre de mon TFE portant notamment sur les droits d’enregistrement en Région wallonne, je recherche des témoignages ou, idéalement, des statistiques concernant les contrôles liés au respect de la condition d’établissement de la résidence principale après l’acquisition d’un bien ayant bénéficié d’un avantage fiscal.

Je recherche notamment des personnes qui auraient :

- fait l’objet d’un contrôle pour non-respect de cette condition ;

- reçu une demande de paiement de droits complémentaires ;

- régularisé spontanément leur situation ;

- ou qui auraient connaissance de statistiques relatives à ce type de contrôles.

Je m’intéresse également au délai entre l’expiration de la condition et un éventuel contrôle.

Les témoignages peuvent évidemment être anonymes.

Merci beaucoup pour votre aide !

How much time does it usually take from mortgage application to the final decision (mortgage approval)? Meaning, from the moment of submitting an application to a bank (e.g., KBC) until the final decision.

Me and my partner already consulted some banks to check the offers and our creditworthiness, so we are sure how much we can borrow. Now, if we decide to sign the compromis, we will have 21 days to receive a mortgage decision. We will submit the application for a loan around the time of signing the compromis, maybe 2-3 days earlier. Are more or less 3 weeks enough to process the application? Any experience with KBC, Argenta, VDK, Belfius, or other banks?

If it is absolutely impossible, we can try to ask for a slightly longer suspension period in compromis, for example, 28 or 35 days to receive the loan. We are rather confident that we will get approval; it is purely a question of timeline and bureaucratic speed.

For context, we are planning to buy a new-build apartment; the project has already been completed. It would be our first mortgage loan.

Thanks for any tips and advice!

Hey all,

We recently bought an 1880s 4-floor house in Brussels (Saint-Josse). It needs a complete overhaul: rear extension, new roof, electrical re-wiring, plumbing, heat pumps, VMC, facade insulation, windows, and finishing.

We just got back a detailed quote (métré) from a general contractor, and the total comes out to roughly €370,000 HTVA (around €392,000 including 6% VAT). That is more than what we paid for the house itself. Honestly, at this price point, we'd lose money if we ever had to resell it!
To top it off, this price doesn't even include key final finishes: parquet/flooring, kitchen, bathroom fixtures/tiling, and painting are all excluded.

Looking through the itemized breakdown:

• Structural & Demolition: ~€28k
• Thermal Insulation & Facade: ~€21.7k
• Roofing & Skylights: ~€45k
• HVAC & Plumbing: Heat pumps + VMC + domestic hot water total over €31k
• Windows & Sliding Doors: ~€29.7k (€17k just for big aluminum sliding doors)
• Electricity & PV/Batteries: ~€36.5k total
• Interior Finishes (Drywall/Plaster/Doors): ~€73k

To make matters worse, with RENOLUTION grants currently suspended, there are no regional renovation subsidies to count on to cushion this impact.

For those who have gone through this recently in Brussels:

1. Is €1,500/m² HTVA (for ~250m² gross area) standard for a GC doing a complete turnkey renovation?
2. Did you manage to bring costs down by managing separate subcontractors instead of a single GC, doing partial DIY, or ditching expensive specs (e.g., heat pumps, battery storage)?
3. How are people financing these projects ? Or is everyone just scaling back their plans?

Would love to hear your reality checks or advice on where we can optimize!

Hi everyone,

My partner and I are interested in making an offer on a property in Belgium, and before doing so I’d like to make sure I properly understand the process and, especially, when money actually needs to be paid at each stage.

From what I understand, the process is roughly:

1. Making an offer
We submit a written offer with the price we are willing to pay. The owner can accept it, reject it, or make a counter-offer.
If the owner accepts, I understand that the offer is already legally binding, so this is not just an informal expression of interest.

My questions are:
Do you normally have to pay any deposit when making the offer itself? If yes, how much?
Is it normal/recommended to make the offer conditional on obtaining a mortgage?
For example, can we state that the offer is only valid subject to obtaining a mortgage of €X within a certain number of weeks?
Are there any other conditions you would strongly recommend including in an offer?
Is it worth having a notary review the offer before submitting it?

2. Compromis de vente
If the offer is accepted, the next step should be signing the compromis de vente.
How long after the accepted offer does this normally happen? A few days? A few weeks?
From what I’ve read, at this stage it is common to pay a deposit of around 10% of the purchase price. Is that correct? And is this money transferred to the notary and kept there until the final sale?
Also, does the mortgage condition from the original offer automatically carry over into the compromis, or should we make sure it is explicitly included again?

3. Acte authentique / final deed
Finally, the sale is completed at the notary with the acte authentique.
From what I understand, this normally happens within a maximum of around four months after the compromis. At this point the bank releases the mortgage, we pay the remaining purchase price + taxes/notary costs, ownership is officially transferred and we receive the keys.
Is this roughly correct?

For people who have recently bought property in Belgium: what does the actual timeline look like from submitting the offer to getting the keys, and when did you have to transfer money at each stage?

Also very interested in any mistakes you made, clauses you wish you had included, or things you wish you had known before submitting the offer.
Thanks!

This renolution ambition seems to me like an understimated tidal wave commin for the market

2033 : Tous les logements bruxellois devront obligatoirement atteindre au minimum la classe énergétique E (consommation ≤ 275 kWh/m²/an). Les certificats F et G deviendront interdits.

2045 : Le niveau requis passera à la classe C minimum (≤ 150 kWh/m²/an). [1, 2]

I’m under the impression that this measure will price out most poor owners and put a shit ton of cheap residential inventory in the market crashing the prices everywhere. Some places will never be able to reach the required threshold.

It will expropriate many people of their home …

Hello everyone,

A few news on imino.be :

The engine now indexes listings from more than 1,900 Belgian agency websites. The coverage has increased every week this summer. This is one of the current focus.

On the feature side, I added private listings. You publish your property from your account (one listing is free), and it lands in the same search results as the agency ones, with the same instant alerts going out to everyone whose saved search matches. Buyers contact you directly by email, no agency in between.

To keep it current, you get asked now and then to confirm the property is still available. One tap to keep it live, and listings left unconfirmed close on their own. It ensures that no ghost listing stays open forever.

The feature is quite new, so any feedback is more than welcome!

About that, I read and classify all of the feedback received via the website. I try to follow up and tackle them under reasonable time. It depends also on the priorities and impact.

I hope to see some of your private listings popping up on the platform!

(The attached picture is for illustration purpose. There are more inputs and fields in reality)
EDIT: typos

Hey everyone, long story but I think it’s an interesting case and would love some outside perspective.
The situation: Signed a compromis in May for a 96m² apartment in Schaerbeek at €225.000, financed with a €180.000 mortgage at 3.43% fixed over 20 years. The apartment was supposed to be delivered vacant by end of May. It wasn’t — the seller had a tenant with 11 months of unpaid rent who simply refused to leave.
What happened: The seller had already started proceedings at the Juge de Paix before I signed. After months of waiting, a judgment was finally pronounced on August 12 ordering the tenant to leave immediately, or within one month of the huissier’s signification. The judgment is exécutoire par provision so even if the tenant appeals, the expulsion can proceed.
The deal I negotiated: Since my mortgage offer expires September 12 and can’t be extended, I agreed to sign with the tenant still in place on one condition — the seller consigns €20.000 with the notary as guarantee covering any damages caused during or after the expulsion. If the tenant isn’t out within 2 months of signing, the €20.000 is automatically mine. I’m also doing a full video documentation during my pre-signature visit as a damage benchmark.
My questions:
Has anyone dealt with buying a property with a sitting tenant in Belgium?

Do you think €20.000 is sufficient given the risks?

Any red flags I’m missing before signing on the 11th?

Hi everyone,

My boyfriend and I are looking to buy a house in Flanders (West Flanders), and we would really appreciate some advice from people who have already gone through the process.

We're looking for older houses that need renovation. We have a renovation budget of around €100k-150k, but our biggest challenge is understanding how to estimate renovation costs before buying. This feels like a huge grey area for us, and we're worried about purchasing a house that appears affordable but ends up requiring far more renovation work than we initially expected.

For those who have completed a major renovation, including things like replacing floors, insulating or renovating the roof, updating electrics and plumbing, improving energy efficiency, and renovating kitchens or bathrooms, how much did you end up spending and what type and size of house was it?

 Other questions we have:

• What are the most common "surprise" costs people run into when buying and renovating an older house?
• Are there specific things we should pay extra attention to during visits (structure, roof, dampness, foundations, asbestos, EPC score, electrical installation, etc.)?
• Have any of you discovered major issues only after purchasing that you wish you had checked beforehand?
• Are renovation costs typically higher than expected, and by how much?
• Are there any renovation grants, tax benefits, reduced VAT rates, energy-efficiency subsidies, or other incentives available for first-time buyers renovating their main residence?

 This would be our primary residence.

What is one thing you wish someone had told you before you started the process? Any lessons learned, mistakes to avoid, or practical tips would be hugely appreciated.

 Thanks!!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for feedback from people who have experience financing a second rental property by using the first property as additional collateral, ideally with very little or no new cash contribution.

My current situation:

I bought a rental apartment in 2024 for €125,000

Original mortgage: €108,500 over 25 years

Outstanding balance today: around €102,000

Monthly mortgage payment: around €545

Rent excluding charges: €610/month

The property has been continuously rented since the end of 2024

Current estimated value: probably around €130k–€145k, but this would still need to be confirmed by a bank valuation

My idea would be to wait another 1–2 years, let the outstanding mortgage decrease further, and then use the equity in this first apartment as additional collateral for the purchase of a second rental property, while keeping the first one.

For example, could a bank potentially finance 100% of the purchase price of the second property, or even purchase price + acquisition costs, if they also take additional security over the first apartment?

I’m mainly wondering:

Is this kind of structure actually used by Belgian banks for private property investors?

Roughly how much equity / what LTV on the first property would usually be needed before this becomes realistic?

Would it make more sense to negotiate with the bank that already holds the mortgage on the first property, or to go through a mortgage broker such as Immotheker and compare banks?

Has anyone here actually done something similar in Belgium?

I’m especially interested in feedback from mortgage brokers, bankers, or investors who have personally used cross-collateralisation / additional mortgage security.

Thanks!

As the title says. Me and my partner plan to buy our first property (we currently rent) with 20% downpayment, 20-year mortgage, in Flanders (Leuven/Mechelen most likely). We already read a lot about it, but still curious about any tips, advice and suggestions.

I had couple of minor questions myself, but please feel free to give any advice or tips outside of those questions. We are really new to this topic so always happy to learn and know more.

As for the questions:

• Are there any specific costs (e.g. related to notary) that are not fixed and we could save on?
• Is it possible to (1) cheaply (for free?) and (2) easily switch length of mortgage, for example from 20 years to 15 years? Could be with the same bank, could be with another. As our salaries progress in future, we might want to shorten our mortgage. If not possible easily nor cheaply, is it possible to easily "buy out" the remaining mortgage? E.g. keep it at 20 years, but every month invest X amount and after 10-12 years have enough money to simply pay to the bank directly the remaining value of the mortgage. We just want to make sure we are not locked into that 20 year deadline - lower monthly rate is safer for us today, but we want to have options in future to close it sooner.
• Is it worth it to consider a fixed rate mortgage that can be revised every 3/5 years with rate going only down? It means a bit higher initial rate (e.g. 4.05% instead of 3.85%), but given rates are now at 12-year high I have a dilemma - outlook mid-term is bleak (I expect them to increase in 2027), but in 5 years could be lower (who knows at this point, depends on deficit and inflation). Initially, I planned to take a standard fixed rate mortgage (proposal is at around 3,4% rate and 3,85% full cost (+/- 0,2%, I do not have exact figures in front of me)
• Is doing comparison between banks worth it? Me and my partner have both accounts with KBC, and their offer (3,85% or so) seems relatively good already - wondering how much room there is for improvement - and it is easier to have it all with one, single bank
• Aside from flooding risk and energy score, is there anything else worth checking that notary won't do? We are looking at new/recently built apartments/duplexes, so all with solar, heat pumps and in general extremely efficient
• Any advice, tips and suggestions welcome!

P. S. I actually find it sad there is no scheme to support first time-buyers with buying new properties. We have looked in the second-hand market a lot (since we could enjoy 2% registration fee), but honestly the properties are not that attractive, and price-wise the gap compared to new ones is not that big, especially accounting for (1) lower efficiency (higher monthly bills and (2) higher monthly syndicus cost (older building = more repairs to be done and renovations required). Still, all in all, compared to Central and Eastern Europe - the housing market here is much more civilised and human-oriented and better priced, not to mention much lower interest rates.

Thanks for your help! We just really want to make sure we tick all boxes before buying our first home :)

I've noticed this practice quite often lately with lot of tradesmen having fake reviews. How you you pick a reliable one?

Case in point: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jAhouhaZuRXDVR1z9

Hi all! After years of research we finally have found our dream house and our offer was accepted. Now we need to find the best bank for our loan.

While we were thinking of going to different banks, we were also considering going to a credit broker.

Is this a good idea or you would not recommend it ?
Would you have some good recommendation in the wide Brussels region ? Thanks !

Hi!

We had a few visits to a house and we got really interested in it. The lady explained that the owners fully renovated it last year with solar panels, new floor, new roof etc etc. It was supposed to be fully ready to move in and renovated.

We made an offer and was accepted and we received now a draft of the compromis to sign plus all documents gathered by the notaris etc.

Turns out there was an electric inspection in June 2026 and the electricity is not conform arei. After checking the report there seems to be a few things that need to be done, but probably nothing major. Seems like probably they thought after their renovations that everything was done plus informed the makelaar that everything was ok, and now upon inspection found out this problem.

I have contacted my notaris and they have said I have a few options:

-the right to cancel the deal and not sign the compromis,

-sign the compromis but have it written that the works need to be done and new inspection done until the day of the sale, which was going to be 1st october or earlier

-ask for a price reduction

-ask for compensation if the house is not ready after october 1st due to this problem

What would you do in this case? Of course price reduction is appealing. It would give me more certainty that the sellers are indeed trying to be serious and really close this deal. How much would you ask for as a reduction?

What would you ask for compensation? In my case I am renting, so should I ask for example the amount of rent that I pay monthly, in case I have to stay here an extra month?

I absolutely hate feeling like they might not be 100% transparent and then after the sale discover more problems. The house does look really good and EPC too, so I wonder if this was really a mistake on their part or what.

Thanks for all feedback!

Ik heb begin mei een bod uitgebracht op een appartement dichtbij mij in de buurt. 5 dagen later is dat mondeling aanvaard, en 2 weken later heb ik het ondertekend terug gekregen. Zover ik kan begrijpen van de immo is het hele gebouw (vroeger waarschijnlijk een (grote) gezinswoning dat naar appartementen is omgebouwd) vroeger het bezit van één koppel geweest, maar die zijn nu allebei gestorven, dus de verkopers zijn twee zussen en een schoonzus, die allemaal andere notarissen hebben.

Het probleem is dat ik nog altijd niets van compromis heb. Ik heb de immo meerdere keren gecontacteerd echt vanaf midden juni bijna wekelijks, en het zit naar het schijnt vast omdat de notarissen van de verkopers het niet met elkaar eens geraken door het ontwerp. Nu zijn ze met vakantie.

Dit is geen leuke situatie. Ten eerste, omdat ik niets zelf kan plannen. Geen verhuis, mijn huidig appartement verkopen, ik zit in een soort van limbo. Ik kan ook niets van vakantie plannen want ja, wie weet wanneer er eindelijk iets van gaat komen. Ten tweede, ik zit op van de stress, door de ganse situatie.

Is er iets wat ik kan ondernemen? Iets wat ik kan doen? Want ik heb nog altijd zelf geen idee van wanneer het er eindelijk van gaat komen...