Belgium Home Building Permits Rise, but Crisis Remains
Belgium approved permits for 22,472 new homes during the first six months of 2026, marking a 10% increase compared with the same period last year, according to figures from the Belgian statistics office Statbel.
It is the first increase in five years, but the construction industry says the numbers are still far below what Belgium needs.
Building Permits Rise for the First Time in Five Years
The number of housing permits issued between January and June reached 22,472, including 10,744 permits for single-family homes and 11,728 for apartments.
Although the increase is a positive change after several years of decline, construction federation Embuild says Belgium is still facing a serious housing shortage.
A few years ago, Belgium was issuing between 26,000 and 29,000 housing permits during the first half of the year. In 2021, the number was even higher than 32,000.
This means the latest figure remains well below the levels seen earlier in the decade.
New Homes Are Becoming More Expensive
Embuild says building a new home has become financially difficult for many families.
The construction federation points to higher building material costs, higher taxes and rising interest rates as factors that have made buying or building a home more expensive.
According to Embuild, someone who borrows 250,000 euro today to build or buy a home can end up paying around 27,000 euro more than a year earlier because of higher financing costs.
The figure is part of Embuild’s explanation for why demand for new housing remains under pressure.
Belgium Could Need 900,000 More Homes
The housing challenge could become even greater in the coming decades.
According to Embuild, Belgium could need around 900,000 additional homes by 2050. The construction federation links this expected demand to population growth, the growing number of smaller households and the fact that more older people are living independently for longer.
Embuild CEO Niko Demeester says the government should take action to make new housing more affordable and encourage additional construction.
Embuild Calls for Lower Housing Taxes
During the federal budget negotiations, Embuild is calling for a lower VAT rate on the construction and purchase of a person’s only and primary home.
The organization is also asking for a lower VAT rate for homes that are rented out for at least 15 years, provided they meet certain size limits.
The construction federation argues that measures like these could help make new homes more affordable and encourage more housing construction.
For now, the latest Statbel figures show that building permits are moving upward again, but the number of approved homes remains below the levels recorded several years ago. With Belgium expected to need hundreds of thousands of additional homes in the coming decades, the construction sector says the housing shortage remains a major challenge.
