Rising rents, growing homelessness, and long wait lists for social, are key issues in Brussels' housing crisis, according to the latest socio-economic panorama from the Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis (IBSA), published on Wednesday.
The Brussels Region has around 602,000 homes for 575,000 households (families or other groups who live together). However, the rising number of households is keeping the housing market under pressure.
The Region is characterised by a high proportion of tenants, with around 63% of homes occupied, compared to 30% in Flanders and 36% in Wallonia.
Of all the regions in the country, Brussels is the most expensive place to live. In 2023, average rents for new tenancies (i.e. leases signed in 2023, all types of accommodation combined) rose by 4.1% compared with the previous year. Elsewhere in the country, there was a slight fall in Wallonia (-0.1%) and a slight rise in Flanders (2%).
Credit: Belga / Eric Lalmand
At the start of the year, an OECD survey also pointed to a shortage of social housing in Brussels. Supply has remained relatively stable since 2005, while demand has more than doubled over the same period.
As a result, the waiting list for social housing is getting longer and longer, rising by 9% in 2023 to 53,801 households. According to the OECD, half the population of Brussels meets the income criteria for social housing.
In Brussels, 31% of the population lives in overcrowded accommodation, compared with 3% in the other regions of the country, according to the latest (2023) survey data on income and living conditions by data organisations SILC and Statbel.
More than 10% of people in Brussels are in a situation of "serious housing deprivation" (less than 1% elsewhere in the country). This category of situation describes housing that combines overcrowding with at least one other problem ranging from dampness to lack of sanitary facilities.
Additionally, the homelessness is a growing issue in the capital. When the number of people without a home was counted in 2022, 7,134 people were recorded as being homeless (as well as living in hostels, squats, etc.). This figure has quadrupled since the first count in 2008.
