Building permits

Building permits: November 2024

Housing
Building permits: November 2024

Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, publishes today the figures on building permits until November 2024.

For the most recent month available, November 2024, building permits were issued for 1,813 new residential buildings. Compared to October 2024, this is an increase of 3.5%. In the Flemish Region, the increase was 5.8%, which means that permits were issued for 1,341 buildings. The number of permits issued for new residential buildings has decreased by 3.1% to 469 in the Walloon Region. In the Brussels-Capital Region, permits were issued in November for the construction of 3 new residential buildings, compared to 28 buildings in the previous month.

  Month Belgium Flemish Region Walloon Region Brussels-Capital Region
2023 1 2,275   1,571   689 ) 15  
2023 2 2,115 (-7.0%) 1,652 (+5.2%) 448 (-35.0%) 15 (0.0%)
2023 3 2,671 (+26.3%) 2,022 (+22.4%) 621 (+38.6%) 28 (+86.7%)
2023 4 2,020 (-24.4%) 1,531 (-24.3%) 460 (-25.9%) 29 (+3.6%)
2023 5 2,089 (+3.4%) 1,565 (+2.2%) 510 (+10.9%) 14 (-51.7%)
2023 6 2,160 (+3.4%) 1,609 (+2.8%) 522 (+2.4%) 29 (+107.1%)
2023 7 1,925 (-10.9%) 1,389 (-13.7%) 512 (-1.9%) 24 (-17.2%)
2023 8 1,699 (-11.7%) 1,168 (-15.9%) 524 (+2.3%) 7 (-70.8%)
2023 9 2,101 (+23.7%) 1,618 (+38.5%) 463 (-11.6%) 20 (+185.7%)
2023 10 2,453 (+16.8%) 1,886 (+16.6%) 542 (+17.1%) 25 (+25.0%)
2023 11 2,005 (-18.3%) 1,495 (-20.7%) 505 (-6.8%) 5 (-80.0%)
2023 12 1,985 (-1.0%) 1,530 (+2.3%) 439 (-13.1%) 16 (+220.0%)
2024 1 1,764 (-11.1%) 1,238 (-19.1%) 517 (+17.8%) 9 (-43.8%)
2024 2 1,738 (-1.5%) 1,268 (+2.4%) 438 (-15.3%) 32 (+255.6%)
2024 3 2,074 (+19.3%) 1,621 (+27.8%) 432 (-1.4%) 20 (-37.5%)
2024 4 1,897 (-8.5%) 1,456 (-10.2%) 431 (-0.2%) 10 (-50.0%)
2024 5 1,715 (-9.6%) 1,243 (-14.6%) 467 (+8.4%) 5 (-50.0%)
2024 6 1,907 (+11.2%) 1,435 (+15.4%) 456 (-2.4%) 16 (+220.0%)
2024 7 1,776 (-6.9%) 1,267 (-11.7%) 504 (+10.5%) 5 (-68.8%)
2024 8 1,640 (-7.7%) 1,107 (-12.6%) 521 (+3.4%) 13 (+160.0%)
2024 9 1,890 (+15.2%) 1,416 (+27.9%) 463 (-11.1%) 11 (-15.4%)
2024 10 1,751 (-7.4%) 1,268 (-10.5%) 455 (-1.7%) 28 (+154.5%)
2024 11 1,813 (+3.5%) 1,341 (+5.8%) 469 (+3.1%) 3 (-89.3%)
Monthly figures - number of permits for new residential buildings + evolution compared to the previous period

Long term evolution

Since 2007, the number of permits for the renovation of residential buildings was generally higher than the number of permits for the construction of new residential buildings. This changes briefly from the second quarter of 2018 onwards. From February 2019 onwards, the number of permits for the renovation of residential buildings is again higher than the number of permits for the construction of new residential buildings. There is a peak in late 2021/early 2022. 

From 2003 onwards, more permits are issued for new apartments than for single family dwellings. During the years 2010-2011, both were at approximately the same level. Afterwards, the difference has been increasing again in favour of the apartments. The difference is the greatest in 2018. From 2019 onwards, the gap narrows again until mid-2022, before slowly widening again.

Purpose and brief description

A building permit is an authorization to start with the execution of a construction project. The granting of the building permit is therefore the final stage of the approval procedure of the government before the start of construction. This statistic provides an overview of the number of buildings and the number of dwellings for which a building permit has been approved, for new construction, renovation and demolition works.

Population

Building permits issued in Belgium during the reference period of the results

Frequency

Monthly

Timing of publication

Results available 3 months after the reference period

Forms

Metadata

RD

Royal decree

Addendum

Addendum