Not a very good statistic to be honest. A good amount of these can be explained through healthy economic growth of the country, while others (like Belgium) were rather high to begin with, and only got more expensive. But Belgium seems to score relatively well compared to other countries in the same situation, still very high though compared to the rest of the world (which isn’t shown here).
Not saying thay there isnt a problem or so on the matter, but people like to complain
Simply listing the rising price is useless if no comparison is offered for cost of living, average salaries and movement options on that salary.
I like to lament the state of the Belgian real estate market any chance I get, but affordability relative to other developed nations is not the issue.
The Swedish Riksbank found it necessary to limit mortgage terms to 105 years. Think about that for a while. Imagine RE being so expensive that no one bats an eye if you take out a mortgage of 140 years or more. You’re essentially letting from the bank at that point, hardly building any equity.
This makes me think that there is still some room for growth left in RE prices in Belgium. There is still some catching up to do.
A bad image imo. It seems that it’s not that bad in Belgium but reading the title clarifies that we are at place 23 of the 50. Stil well above the median
Meaningless over such a short time period.
Ah so that’s why there’s so many Luxemburgers desperate to buy anything that they can buy in the province next door, even if that means 2h commutes each way.
Didn’t banks just say our domestic market was 15 or 25% overpriced? I wish my salary was 15% too high…
This is not taking into account the fact that in Canada people can afford to buy a house just by working. Here in Belgium, a lot of my friends had to ask for help from their grandparents or their parents just to have enough money for the cashdown. To that, you can add the notaire’s mafia and you have a market that is very harsh against first buyers.
Without tracking trends, this is fairly useless. Yes, 2020 hit everyone in some way.
If, for example, Belgium has been rising 4% per year for 10 years, and COVID didn’t spike things too much while Luxembourg had 0% increase for 10 years and then a 17.5% increase, Belgium would be *much* worse off than Luxembourg. Along with CoL, wage trends, etc…
(obviously just making up numbers for a point, but I believe it is valid)
This is a relative measure of previous housing prices with current housing prices. Inflation rates and original prices are not taken into account.
Turkey can be explained with high inflation. The inflation in turkey in 2020 was 12%.
I read somewhere that in Gent prices went up by 5% in 6 months.
it was in June 2021 if I remember correctly.
Compared to NL you guys are doing quite good to be honest. While not being able to buy a house is a relative feeling, the housingcrisis in The Netherlands seems much more serious than in Belgium. For example: between 2015 and 2020 house prices in the Amsterdam region increase by 81%. While salaries in both countries are almost the same, the average house in Flanders was sold for €275.000 (vlaanderenstatistiek) in 2020 while in the same period the average house in the Netherlands was sold for €334.000 (CBS).
This is like posting a list of top countries by tuberculosis deaths and then being proud you rank 23th. It’s a societal harmful thing that long term will destroy our social mobility, society and eventually economy.
For an image of the future, look at Amsterdam where vacancies for teachers and police officers can not be filled anymore because these lower plebs can’t afford to live in travel distance of the city.
The housing shortage in Belgium has never been quite as bad as in the Netherlands. The Dutch experienced a lot of destruction during WW2 and never quite recovered, also rent controls post-war discouraged investment. Belgium was fortunate after WW2 and rents remained very low in urban centres until the seventies. This however did not prevent the sprawl phenomenon that so disfigures much of the countryside outside the main centres.
Yeah, but now a lot of Germans buy houses in Ostbelgien.
What are some good new building projects in Brussels or Leuven? Any suggestions?
Switzerland is low because you are paying 1.5 million euros for a 2 room apartment and it hasn’t changed for a long time.
21 comments
Not a very good statistic to be honest. A good amount of these can be explained through healthy economic growth of the country, while others (like Belgium) were rather high to begin with, and only got more expensive. But Belgium seems to score relatively well compared to other countries in the same situation, still very high though compared to the rest of the world (which isn’t shown here).
Not saying thay there isnt a problem or so on the matter, but people like to complain
Simply listing the rising price is useless if no comparison is offered for cost of living, average salaries and movement options on that salary.
I like to lament the state of the Belgian real estate market any chance I get, but affordability relative to other developed nations is not the issue.
The Swedish Riksbank found it necessary to limit mortgage terms to 105 years. Think about that for a while. Imagine RE being so expensive that no one bats an eye if you take out a mortgage of 140 years or more. You’re essentially letting from the bank at that point, hardly building any equity.
This makes me think that there is still some room for growth left in RE prices in Belgium. There is still some catching up to do.
A bad image imo. It seems that it’s not that bad in Belgium but reading the title clarifies that we are at place 23 of the 50. Stil well above the median
Meaningless over such a short time period.
Ah so that’s why there’s so many Luxemburgers desperate to buy anything that they can buy in the province next door, even if that means 2h commutes each way.
Didn’t banks just say our domestic market was 15 or 25% overpriced? I wish my salary was 15% too high…
This is not taking into account the fact that in Canada people can afford to buy a house just by working. Here in Belgium, a lot of my friends had to ask for help from their grandparents or their parents just to have enough money for the cashdown. To that, you can add the notaire’s mafia and you have a market that is very harsh against first buyers.
Without tracking trends, this is fairly useless. Yes, 2020 hit everyone in some way.
If, for example, Belgium has been rising 4% per year for 10 years, and COVID didn’t spike things too much while Luxembourg had 0% increase for 10 years and then a 17.5% increase, Belgium would be *much* worse off than Luxembourg. Along with CoL, wage trends, etc…
(obviously just making up numbers for a point, but I believe it is valid)
This is a relative measure of previous housing prices with current housing prices. Inflation rates and original prices are not taken into account.
Turkey can be explained with high inflation. The inflation in turkey in 2020 was 12%.
*Laughs in Canadian*
[Here is the source](https://www.imf.org/external/research/housing/) for this chart.
I read somewhere that in Gent prices went up by 5% in 6 months.
it was in June 2021 if I remember correctly.
Compared to NL you guys are doing quite good to be honest. While not being able to buy a house is a relative feeling, the housingcrisis in The Netherlands seems much more serious than in Belgium. For example: between 2015 and 2020 house prices in the Amsterdam region increase by 81%. While salaries in both countries are almost the same, the average house in Flanders was sold for €275.000 (vlaanderenstatistiek) in 2020 while in the same period the average house in the Netherlands was sold for €334.000 (CBS).
This is like posting a list of top countries by tuberculosis deaths and then being proud you rank 23th. It’s a societal harmful thing that long term will destroy our social mobility, society and eventually economy.
For an image of the future, look at Amsterdam where vacancies for teachers and police officers can not be filled anymore because these lower plebs can’t afford to live in travel distance of the city.
The housing shortage in Belgium has never been quite as bad as in the Netherlands. The Dutch experienced a lot of destruction during WW2 and never quite recovered, also rent controls post-war discouraged investment. Belgium was fortunate after WW2 and rents remained very low in urban centres until the seventies. This however did not prevent the sprawl phenomenon that so disfigures much of the countryside outside the main centres.
Yeah, but now a lot of Germans buy houses in Ostbelgien.
What are some good new building projects in Brussels or Leuven? Any suggestions?
Switzerland is low because you are paying 1.5 million euros for a 2 room apartment and it hasn’t changed for a long time.