A large number of people living in Belgium bought properties abroad in 2022, with Spain now overtaking France as the most popular destination.
A total of 9,024 Belgians, or an average of 25 people living in the country per day, bought a holiday home or property abroad in 2022, L'Echo reported, based on figures from the Ministry of Finance.
New buyers have a pronounced preference for Spain (including the Balearic and Canary Islands), where purchases accounted for almost 40% of all new homes bought by Belgians, overtaking France, the former favourite of Belgians abroad.
"This can be explained in part by Spain's milder climate, but above all by its prices. Spanish property is cheaper than French property," Marleen De Vijt, CEO of Azull, a Belgian estate agent specialising in Spanish property, said.
Just under a quarter of all purchases were made in France, while Italy accounted for just 8.8% of purchases.
However, when looking at the grand total of Belgian taxpayers who have properties outside the country – 200,546 people – and where they bought a house, France is still the top country. As many as 81,291 French properties are owned by Belgian taxpayers, accounting for 27.9%. But this is already being narrowly followed by Spain, with 73,862 properties (25.4%).
Last year, the average purchase price was €288,592, while the median, the middle value of all purchases, is considerably lower, at some €180,000. A total of 23,571 of them own several holiday homes and properties abroad. Just 1,961 foreign properties were sold in 2022.
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This is the first time that annual figures on the number of purchases and sales have become available, which is the result of a new law that came into force in 2021, making it compulsory for buyers to report the purchase of foreign property to the Belgian tax authorities. Foreign real estate owned by companies is not included in these figures.
Anyone who fails to declare their foreign property, or fails to do so on time, is liable to a fine. So far, however, the tax authorities have not imposed any such fines.
