De Bel­gi­sche woning­markt: trends en recent ver­loop

After several years of strongly rising prices, the Belgian housing market cooled in 2022. The indicators for the second half of the year pointed to a decline in the number of transactions and zero growth in house prices. That being said, a sharp decline in house prices currently appears unlikely. This is because the negative impact of higher interest rates is being offset by an array of factors, including the longer terms of new mortgage loans, higher down payments, rising nominal incomes, falling energy prices and a slowdown in housing supply growth. Finally, the repayment burden for new mortgage loans has risen strongly in recent years but declined markedly for existing fixed-rate mortgages thanks to strong income growth.