At least 500,000 square metres of federal buildings remain empty and, of this, about 100,000 m2 will be put up for rent, Het Nieuwsblad and Gazet van Antwerpen reported on Monday.
The two Flemish newspapers quoted figures provided by the Secretary of State for Building Regulation, Mathieu Michel (Mouvement Réformateur) at the request of Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) legislator Franky Demon, who had criticised the mismanagement of public funds.
The federal building authority pays about €450 million a year to rent 887 buildings for the federal government. This rented space is used to house the federal administration and public service departments. However, some of it is not always used.
The most obvious example is the Eurostation building near Brussels’ Gare du Midi, where barely half of the 77,000 m2 rented by the government – for €1.4 million – is being used. The rest of the building, which, since 2005, has been under a rental agreement running until 2035, remains unoccupied.
This is also the case with other rented buildings in the country that are not fully occupied all the time.
Michel pointed out that during this legislature the total leased area has already been reduced by one million m2, from 7.8 to 6.8 million m2. The aim is to reduce it by another million m2, and thus save €37 million per year by 2030.
