Woluwe-Saint-Pierre has been named the most expensive place to rent in Brussels, while Jette is the municipality with the cheapest rental accommodation in the Capital Region, according to data released on Monday by Federia, the Federation of French-speaking Real Estate Agents in Belgium.
The average monthly rent for a newly-leased apartment in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre reached €1,310 last year, up from €1,280 in 2021. Uccle (€1,247) and Ixelles (€1,217) were found to be the second and third -most expensive places to rent an apartment in Brussels.
At the other end of the renting scale in the capital, the average monthly rent for an apartment in Jette was €845; Anderlecht was the second-cheapest municipality at €867; Molenbeek-Saint-Jean was third-cheapest (€883).
Overall, the average price for newly-leased accommodation in Brussels rose 4.2% from 2021 to 2022 — slightly less than the average rental price increase in Wallonia (4.6%) and Flanders (4.7%), but significantly more than the average price rise in Brussels in 2020 (0.7%) and 2021 (0.8%).
The increase means that the average cost of rented accommodation in Brussels is now €1,154 – significantly more than the average price in Wallonia (€759) and Flanders (€815).
'Running at full speed'
According to several real estate experts interviewed by l'Echo, the principal cause of the relatively steep rise in rental prices is an overall increase in demand for rented accommodation.
"The rental market is running at full speed," said Kim Ruysen, the Managing Director of Trevi Group Real Estate. "In January 2022, our agency in the centre of Brussels concluded 20 rentals with an average rent of €870 euros. In January 2023, this same agency is at 55 rentals with an average rent of more than €1,000."
Ruysen's words were echoed by Andreea Coman, a Monitoring and Development Manager at ERA Real Estate Châtelain.
"We had an excellent month of January 2023, it has never been so good," Coman said. "I think that 2023 will be the year of renting rather than selling."
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Coman explained that the growing demand for rental properties is due to a corresponding decline in demand for mortgages as rising energy costs, high inflation, and increasing long-term interest rates have reduced the overall purchasing power of Belgians and restricted their borrowing capacity.
"Mortgage rates jumped in 2022, which makes things more difficult for first-time buyers, who therefore remain tenants for longer. This inevitably inflates demand."
