economy
October 12, 2023 – 18:02
Anyone who wants to buy a house or apartment in East Flanders will have to pay a little more. This is evident from a study by notaris.be. It is mainly the apartments that are becoming more expensive. As a result, the number of real estate transactions is declining. In our province this was almost 6% less than last year. Strikingly, East Flanders has the highest number of buyers under the age of 30.
The first nine months of 2023 were not the busiest for the real estate market. More than 5% fewer transactions were carried out everywhere in Flanders than in the same period last year. The prices could be something in between. We see a slight increase there, although it is not too bad for houses. You now pay almost 322,000 euros for an average house. That is an increase of about 1 pc. An average apartment will cost you 267,848 euros, or an increase of 2.9%. Traditionally, these Flemish figures are also compared with those in the provinces. And our province still scores fairly well there. We are almost on the same wavelength as Flanders, so a slight increase. As far as living in the cities and municipalities of our province is concerned, we can see that Sint-Martens-Latem remains by far the most expensive municipality in which to buy a house, an average of over 810,000 euros. This is followed by De Pinte, Destelbergen, Lochristi and Melle. If we look at the other side, we see that Ronse is the cheapest place to live. There you pay an average of 216,000 euros for a home. You can also find affordable housing in Zelzate, Eeklo, Maarkedal and Assenede. And that’s good news for people under thirty. They represent 32 percent of East Flemish buyers.