Building permits

Building permits: august 2023

Housing
Building permits: august 2023

Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, publishes today the figures on building permits until August 2023.

For the most recent month available, August 2023, building permits were issued for 1,679 new residential buildings. Compared to July 2023, this is a decrease of 12.3%. In the Flemish Region, there was a decrease of 15.9%, which means that permits were issued for 1,168 buildings. The number of permits issued for new residential buildings has decreased by 3.3% to 504 in the Walloon Region. In the Brussels-Capital Region, permits were issued for 7 new residential buildings.


 

  Month Belgium Flemish Region Walloon Region Brussels-Capital Region
2022 1 2,495   1,919   551   25  
2022 2 2,448 (-1.9%) 1,862 (-3.0%) 571 (+3.6%) 15 (-40.0%)
2022 3 3,485 (+42.4%) 2,723 (+46.2%) 745 (+30.5%) 17 (+13.3%)
2022 4 2,242 (-35.7%) 1,593 (-41.5%) 640 (-14.1%) 9 (-47.1%)
2022 5 2,715 (+21.1%) 1,994 (+25.2%) 706 (+10.3%) 15 (+66.7%)
2022 6 2,392 (-11.9%) 1,832 (-8.1%) 553 (-21.7%) 7 (-53.3%)
2022 7 1,954 (-18.3%) 1,419 (-22.5%) 527 (-4.7%) 8 (+14.3%)
2022 8 2,460 (+25.9%) 1,788 (+26.0%) 667 (+26.6%) 5 (-37.5%)
2022 9 2,269 (-7.8%) 1,705 (-4.6%) 551 (-17.4%) 13 (+160.0%)
2022 10 2,248 (-0.9%) 1,674 (-1.8%) 571 (+3.6%) 3 (-76.9%)
2022 11 1,911 (-15.0%) 1,355 (-19.1%) 542 (-5.1%) 14 (+366.7%)
2022 12 2,026 (+6.0%) 1,538 (+13.5%) 475 (-12.4%) 13 (-7.1%)
2023 1 2,270 (+12.0%) 1,571 (+2.1%) 692 (+45.7%) 7 (-46.2%)
2023 2 2,111 (-7.0%) 1,652 (+5.2%) 453 (-34.5%) 6 (-14.3%)
2023 3 2,656 (+25.8%) 2,022 (+22.4%) 625 (+38.0%) 9 (+50.0%)
2023 4 2,008 (-24.4%) 1,531 (-24.3%) 461 (-26.2%) 16 (+77.8%)
2023 5 2,099 (+4.5%) 1,565 (+2.2%) 525 (+13.9%) 9 (-43.8%)
2023 6 2,160 (+2.9%) 1,609 (+2.8%) 529 (+0.8%) 22 (+144.4%)
2023 7 1,907 (-11.7%) 1,388 (-13.7%) 517 (-2.3%) 3 (-86.4%)
2023 8 1,679 (-12.3%) 1,168 (-15.9%) 504 (-3.3%) 7 (+75.0%)
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.  
The number of residential renovations reached 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. In recent months, the gap between the two series has been growing in favour of the number of new apartments.

Chart
Content

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