Building permits

Building permits: March 2025

Housing
Building permits: March 2025

Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, publishes today the provisional figures on building permits until March 2025.

For the most recent month available, March 2025, building permits were issued for 1,848 new residential buildings. Compared to February 2025, this is an increase of 18.8%.  In the Flemish Region, the increase was 21%.  The number of permits issued for new buildings has increased by 13.3% in the Walloon Region.  In the Brussels-Capital Region, the number of permits issued for new buildings decreased to 3 buildings.

Monthly figures - number of permits for new residential buildings + evolution compared to the previous period

  Month Belgium Flemish Region Walloon Region Brussels-Capital Region
2024 1 1,766 (0.0%) 1,238 (0.0%) 519 (0.0%) 9 (0.0%)
2024 2 1,735 (-1.8%) 1,268 (+2.4%) 437 (-15.8%) 30 (+233.3%)
2024 3 2,073 (+19.5%) 1,621 (+27.8%) 431 (-1.4%) 20 (-33.3%)
2024 4 1,892 (-8.7%) 1,456 (-10.2%) 427 (-0.9%) 9 (-55.0%)
2024 5 1,704 (-9.9%) 1,243 (-14.6%) 457 (+7.0%) 4 (-55.6%)
2024 6 1,922 (+12.8%) 1,435 (+15.4%) 474 (+3.7%) 13 (+225.0%)
2024 7 1,776 (-7.6%) 1,267 (-11.7%) 502 (+5.9%) 6 (-53.8%)
2024 8 1,611 (-9.3%) 1,107 (-12.6%) 493 (-1.8%) 10 (+66.7%)
2024 9 1,858 (+15.3%) 1,416 (+27.9%) 432 (-12.4%) 10 (0.0%)
2024 10 1,734 (-6.7%) 1,268 (-10.5%) 445 (+3.0%) 21 (+110.0%)
2024 11 1,836 (+5.9%) 1,341 (+5.8%) 493 (+10.8%) 2 (-90.5%)
2024 12 1,696 (-7.6%) 1,321 (-1.5%) 371 (-24.7%) 4 (+100.0%)
2025 1 1,642 (-3.2%) 1,186 (-10.2%) 449 (+21.0%) 6 (+50.0%)
2025 2 1,556 (-5.2%) 1,207 (+1.8%) 339 (-24.5%) 9 (+50.0%)
2025 3 1,848 (+18.8%) 1,461 (+21.0%) 384 (+13.3%) 3 (-66.7%)
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