Already 1.15 million Belgians own a second property in addition to their own home. There have never been so many. Compared to 2022, this is an increase of 7 percent, compared to 2019 even an increase of 16 percent. Het Laatste Nieuws and De Tijd wrote this on Thursday based on a study by BNP Paribas Fortis.
Remarkable: more and more people in their thirties and forties are buying a place abroad to telework from there.
Most Belgians who are multi-owners have a second property in their own country, more specifically 931,000 people. It can be either a holiday home or a home to rent out.
Of the loans that market leader BNP Paribas Fortis provides for second homes, there are also increasing numbers for financing properties to let. In 2019, this involved 56 percent of second homes, in 2020 it was 60 percent and last year it was already 66 percent.
Last year there was a remarkable turnaround in the loans granted by BNP Paribas Fortis for the financing of second homes. Due to the increased interest rate, the number of loans fell by 36 percent compared to 2022. But above all, the average loan amount for the purchase of a second home fell from 236,700 euros in 2022 to 219,700 euros last year. It was the first time in five years that the bank recorded a decline.