Almost no Brussels renters have taken advantage of their preferential right to purchase their home if it is put up for sale.
A much-touted plan to improve access to the property market has not been successful since its introduction at the beginning of the year.
In January 2024, Brussels State Secretary for Housing Minister Nawal Ben Hamou (PS) introduced preferential rights, meaning that if a landlord decides to sell a rental property, the tenants get the first option to purchase it before it is offered to other buyers. But very few tenants have taken advantage of the scheme according to data reported by l'Echo on Monday.
Real estate agencies have recorded next to no purchases that came about as a result. ERA Real Estate noted zero exchanges of this type, We Invest noted one, Trevi recorded two such transactions out of 352 and Latour & Petit said three in 330 transactions took place under the scheme.
'Too much paperwork'
In practice, Ben Hamou's amendment requires landlords to send a registered letter to tenants informing them that the property is on sale. They must disclose the price and remind the tenants of their preferential rights. The tenant then has 30 days to indicate whether or not they are interested in purchasing the property.
This is only possible for non-furnished properties and tenants must be renting the property as their primary residence for at least three years. Units containing multiple apartments are exempt.
Nawal Ben Hamou (PS). Credit: Belga
The measure is unpopular among real estate agencies, who see preferential rights as a complex and unnecessary administrative burden. They say landlords often offer the property to its residents of their own accord and the measure introduces "too much paperwork".
Along with housing federations Federia and CIB, around 50 real estate agencies have brought a case to the Constitutional Court aiming to annul the measure.
Preferential rights "interfere with the right to private property and are not likely to improve the effectiveness of the right to housing," said Federia's General Director Charlotte De Thaye when the appeal was lodged in May.
Rights are not revolutionary
Tenants' rights groups continue to advocate for preferential rights. "It is true that few tenants take up the landlord's offer, but that's simply because tenants don't have enough money to buy a property," José Garcia, General Director of the Tenant's Union, told The Brussels Times. "This regulation is a really good thing for tenants. It is not difficult to understand and it should remain in our legal arsenal."
The Brussels Assembly for the Right to Housing (RBDH) is more nuanced in its position. It argues that preferential rights are "quite limited" in impact and "will not revolutionise access to property given high prices."
"Landlords wishing to sell were already approaching their tenant(s) before taking any other action to save themselves certain costs and visits without any preferential rights," a report published earlier this year states.
Credit: Belga / Benoit Doppagne
Nonetheless, RBDH wants to see preferential rights strengthened and extended to include more properties. The same report rejects landlords' claims that the measure makes the sale process more complex.
"Landlords' representatives fear that the procedure will become more cumbersome and that it will take longer to sell a property [...] But giving priority to the person already occupying the property will save time."
It adds that landlord concerns that the measure could "cause a cataclysm in the private market" are unfounded because preferential rights are "too weak to disrupt investment in a city considered particularly attractive by investors themselves."
