Published on and written by Cyril Jarnias
Tourism is no longer just about hotels, museums, and crowded terraces. For about fifteen years, it has been carrying increasing weight in how Belgians find housing, where investors buy, and how much tenants pay for rent. Between platforms like Airbnb, the rise of city trips, and the explosion in domestic stays, the boundary between tourist accommodation and traditional housing is becoming porous, especially in major cities.
Tourist pressure is strong in the Brussels-Capital Region, on the coast, in the Ardennes, and in major Flemish cities. This dynamic, measured in overnight stays, revenue, and rental yields, raises a crucial question: housing accessibility and cost for residents in the heart of these zones.
A Significant Economic Weight… That Impacts Real Estate
Before detailing the effects on real estate, we must measure the economic scale of tourism in Belgium. Recent data shows a sector in a full post-Covid catch-up phase, even surpassing pre-crisis levels.
The direct and indirect contribution of travel and tourism to Belgian GDP reached 32 billion euros in 2023.
The volume of overnight stays reflects this growing strength. In 2024, the country recorded 44.8 million overnight stays across all categories. The domestic clientele represents a significant fraction: Belgians themselves are now the primary market, ahead of the Dutch, French, and Germans.
The massive demand for temporary housing, fueled by tourist growth and digital platforms, adds to the demographic pressure on the residential market, creating a structural tension on real estate.
Increasingly Concentrated Tourist Demand
Available figures show how much certain areas concentrate the flows. Flanders, Wallonia, and the Brussels-Capital Region share tourism jurisdiction, but attractiveness is not uniform.
| Region | Share of international tourists (2016) | Share of domestic visitors (2016) |
|---|---|---|
| Flanders | 49.2 % | 59.9 % |
| Brussels-Capital Region | 37.8 % | 14.7 % |
| Wallonia | 13 % | 25.5 % |
The major “art cities” – Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Mechelen – capture a large share of urban stays, supplemented by “nature” hubs (Ardennes, Kempen) and the coast. This concentration mechanically reinforces pressure on land and housing in these areas, especially when housing stock growth no longer keeps pace.
Brussels, a Laboratory for Airbnb’s Effect on Rents
The Brussels-Capital Region is by far the most documented territory regarding links between tourism, short-term rental platforms, and the real estate market. Work conducted by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and ULB allows for quantifying, at least partially, the phenomenon.
An Explosion in Tourist Rental Supply
Before the pandemic, data from sources like Inside Airbnb or AirDNA showed a soaring number of short-term listings in Brussels. The number of active listings rose from about 6,500 in 2015 to over 12,000 in 2017, a level maintained until 2019. The health crisis then caused the supply to drop to around 9,000 homes, then around 7,700 in 2022, with no clear return to the pre-Covid trend.
Estimates vary on the exact number of homes withdrawn from the traditional rental market due to Airbnb and similar platforms, but they are of the same order of magnitude:
| Source / Study | Homes Removed from Brussels Rental Market | Estimated Share of Total Rental Stock |
|---|---|---|
| VUB Research | ≈ 5,000 homes | ≈ 1 % |
| Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis (BISA) | ≥ 2,400 homes | ≈ 0.7 % |
On the surface, these percentages may seem modest. But in a market where shortage often plays out at the margin – waiting lists of several dozen candidates per home, wait times of over four years for social housing – removing 0.7 to 1% of supply can be enough to trigger an upward spiral in rents in certain neighborhoods.
Measurable Rent Increases, Neighborhood by Neighborhood
Brussels researchers precisely examined rent evolution between 2016 and 2018 based on the density of Airbnb listings in neighborhoods. Their conclusion is clear: a local increase in tourist rental supply is accompanied by a significant rise in rents, even accounting for inflation.
For each additional Airbnb listing per 100 homes, the average rent increases by this percentage above inflation.
The mechanisms at play are twofold. On one hand, each home converted into tourist accommodation reduces supply available for households, driving up the market. On the other hand, increased tourist traffic can raise the perceived “attractiveness” of a neighborhood – cafes, shops, trendy vibe – encouraging owners and investors to adjust rents upward.
Interestingly, the study shows the effect on rents is comparable whether it involves occasional hosts or professional managers. It’s the overall listing density that matters more than the individual owner’s profile.
Who Pays the Bill? Middle Classes Under Pressure
Contrary to what one might imagine looking at some American examples, rising rents don’t only affect the wealthiest households. In the United States, a Wharton School study suggested Airbnb’s impact primarily concentrates on educated, high-income tenants, who live in neighborhoods dense with services and leisure, in direct competition with tourists.
In Brussels, the pressure from short-term rental platforms primarily affects middle and lower-middle-class neighborhoods, more than the poorest areas. Zones like the Pentagon, Ixelles, Saint-Gilles, and Etterbeek are particularly concerned because they combine three assets: good transport links, an attractive cultural and leisure offering, and an older real estate stock whose homes are easily divisible and convertible into tourist accommodations.
In these municipalities, the gradual conversion of homes into furnished tourist accommodations acts as an accelerator of tourist gentrification. Households with modest or middle incomes, already facing a general increase in real estate prices, find themselves priced out of certain segments or forced to move towards the periphery.
A Very Uneven Geography of Airbnb Impact
Far from spreading homogeneously, the impact of platforms concentrates on a few key areas. Available data in Brussels draws a very marked map.
| Zone / Brussels Municipality | Situation Regarding Tourist Rentals |
|---|---|
| Pentagon (historic center) | 15 to 33% of homes converted to tourist use depending on the block |
| Ixelles, Saint-Gilles, Etterbeek | High listing density, close to European institutions |
| City of Brussels (municipality) | Highest density of short-term stays in the region |
| Anderlecht, Molenbeek | Very few tourist listings |
This contrast shows that the debate on Airbnb is not equally acute everywhere. In working-class municipalities like Anderlecht or Molenbeek, where tourist clientele is limited, the main tension comes more from the structural deficit of affordable housing, general price increases, and sustained demographic growth. Conversely, in the city center and around the European district, tourist demand is a direct factor of pressure on the market.
Surprisingly Little Impact on Purchase Prices… For Now
One observation, however, nuances the picture: available Brussels studies have not revealed a significant impact of Airbnb on average sale prices by neighborhood between 2015 and 2021. Unlike some European cities where an increase in “Airbnb density” is quickly accompanied by a surge in price per square meter, the effect is not clearly evident in Brussels data.
A European analysis covering 25 major tourist cities showed that a 1% increase in Airbnb listing density was associated with a 2.9% increase in home prices. Specific research in Amsterdam estimated that adding a hundred listings within a 250-meter radius of a property could lead to a price increase of between 0.05% and 0.12%.
Brussels may therefore be in an intermediate phase: rents are already clearly reacting to tourist pressure, but sale prices have not yet fully integrated this new use value. In a context where real estate prices have already risen sharply for other reasons (interest rates, demographics, lack of new construction), isolating Airbnb’s effect on transactions remains delicate.
Professionalization and Financialization of Tourist Rentals
One of the major shifts observed in recent years lies in the transformation of Airbnb from a “peer-to-peer” platform to a market increasingly dominated by professional operators.
From a Sharing Economy to a Quasi-Para-Hotel Stock
Originally, Airbnb presented itself as a way to rent out a spare room or a home occasionally unoccupied. However, in Brussels as elsewhere, this model has largely moved away from the initial spirit. Research shows about a quarter of listings in the capital are offered by major players owning at least three properties, sometimes many more.
A host is generally considered professional if they list at least three properties or rent out a single home for more than 120 days per year. These actors are responsible for removing many homes from the traditional rental market. The pandemic accelerated this trend: small occasional owners sometimes ceased activity due to uncertainty, while structured investors, better able to manage risks, strengthened their market presence.
This professionalization strengthens the link between tourist rental and investment logic. A well-located Brussels apartment can now be conceived, purchased, furnished, and managed as a fragmented hotel asset, with specific occupancy and yield rates, distinct from the classic rental market.
An Additional Factor of Scarcity in an Already Tight Market
This dynamic overlaps with a structural imbalance between housing supply and demand. At the national scale, Belgium must add hundreds of thousands of homes in the coming years to meet household growth. Since 2023, the housing stock is no longer growing faster than the number of households, whereas this was the case in the previous decade.
Residential building permits are sharply declining, notably in Brussels (-40% over nine months in 2024). In this context of underproduction and high costs, the conversion of homes to tourist use accentuates market pressure.
In parallel, indicators show fierce competition for long-term rentals: in Flanders, 40 to 50 candidates are mentioned for each home put up for rent, while in Brussels the proportion of tenant households reaches 60%. In this tense landscape, the seasonal rental of entire properties acts as a multiplier of scarcity.
Urban Tourism, Tourist Gentrification, and “Touristification”
Researchers speak of “touristification” when a neighborhood gradually transforms under the effect of tourist demand: replacement of local shops with visitor-oriented boutiques and restaurants, rising rents, withdrawal of homes from the residential stock, nuisance from overcrowding. This process is well-documented in cities like Barcelona, Lisbon, or Amsterdam. Belgium is not immune.
Bruges, Showcase and Symptom of Overtourism
Bruges is often cited as the Belgian example of “overtourism.” This UNESCO World Heritage city welcomes several million visitors per year. A recently analyzed year reported 7.3 million tourists for 10.1 million visitor days in the historic center, an average of 27,500 daily visitors, equivalent to 138 tourists per 100 residents.
Local authorities are acting against the negative effects of mass tourism on daily life and the commercial fabric.
Action against the disappearance of essential shops, replaced by chocolate shops, waffle stores, and souvenir shops.
Ban on constructing new hotels in the historic center to limit tourist pressure.
Suspension of new permit issuance for Airbnb-type tourist rentals and other vacation homes.
The stated goal is twofold: preserve a minimum of mix between residents and visitors, and prevent residential price surges linked to excessive specialization in tourism. In other words, prevent Bruges’ center from becoming a postcard scene nearly deserted by its inhabitants.
Ghent, Antwerp, Coast, and Ardennes: Regional Nuances
Other Flemish cities adopt similar strategies, with their specifics. Ghent, experiencing rapid growth in visitors (over 1.5 million overnight tourists in 2022, not counting day-trippers), decided as early as 2019 to ban the conversion of homes into vacation houses. In 2023, the tourist tax for vacation homes and apartments was doubled compared to hotels, to discourage mass conversions of homes into tourist furnished rentals.
This policy aims to favor “pajama tourists” – those who stay multiple nights – over “selfie tourists” coming for a few hours, considered more nuisance-generating than positive impact. But it also responds, implicitly, to the fear of the city center losing its permanent residents.
City Tourism Policy
On the coast, tourist pressure has long been massive, with a very significant share of second homes. Historical data already highlighted in the 1980s the underestimation of overnight stays in official statistics, due to a lack of precise census of these second homes. Today still, some coastal municipalities are revising their property taxes upward, ending advantageous prepayment regimes, in a context where competition between tourist and residential use remains acute.
In the Ardennes, the rise of cottages and vacation homes, boosted by a strong preference of Belgians for domestic stays (it’s estimated that about 80% of consumers now prefer vacations within the country), translates into both inflation of leisure real estate prices and tension on affordability for residents. In some municipalities like Durbuy, quotas have been set to limit the number of tourist homes relative to the number of inhabitants.
A Belgian Real Estate Market Already Under Structural Pressure
To understand why tourism and platforms have such a sensitive impact, it must be recalled that the Belgian real estate market was already very tight, independent of these factors.
Continuously Rising Prices Over the Long Term
Since the turn of the 2000s, Belgium has experienced a near-uninterrupted growth in real estate prices, with only one real correction phase in real terms around 2021‑2022. From 2010 to 2021, the median price of apartments rose by nearly 60%, an average annual increase of about 3.6%. Over the same period, houses followed a comparable trajectory.
More recently, the national house price index increased by 3.58% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2024. Even corrected for inflation, the rise remains slightly positive. New homes, in particular, saw their prices climb by over 5% over one year at that date, reflecting increased costs of materials, energy, and requirements for energy performance.
A Shortage of Supply in Major Cities
In the main urban hubs – Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Liège – the situation is one of chronic housing shortage, partially masked by the rise of smaller apartments, coliving, and student housing. Residential vacancy rates remain below 3% in several urban centers, a level typical of very tight markets.
Number of households projected for Belgium by 2050, compared to 5.06 million in 2022, according to official projections.
This context explains why the lack of sufficient new construction, combined with the diversion of part of the existing stock toward tourist rentals, produces disproportionate effects on rents and residential accessibility.
A Rental Market Under Tension and Increasingly Competitive
The Belgian rental stock represents about 30% of the housing stock (23% private rental, 7% social housing), a proportion decreasing compared to previous decades. In Brussels, renting is the majority, with about six in ten households being tenants. Gross rental yields for apartments hover around 4 to 5% in major cities, with peaks above 5.5% in certain Brussels or Liège segments.
Competition is extreme for housing in Flanders, with dozens of candidates per property. The shortage of student housing pushes up rents in Leuven, Ghent, and Brussels. The rise of short-term rentals (furnished tourist accommodations, seasonal rentals) intensifies pressure on an already saturated market.
Regulatory Responses: Regulating Without Stifling
Faced with these tensions, Belgian public authorities have gradually tightened regulations on tourist rentals, with different approaches by region but a common goal: limit negative effects on the housing market while preserving tourist attractiveness.
An Increasingly Strict Brussels Framework
In Brussels, the regulatory framework for tourist accommodations is now one of the most regulated in the country, even if some international reports continue to classify it among “low-constraint” regimes for short-term rentals.
Several pillars structure this system:
– mandatory registration of accommodations with Brussels Economy and Employment;
– need to obtain an urban planning conformity certificate when the home changes use (from residential to tourist);
– annual rental duration caps (120 days) beyond which the activity is considered professional;
– strengthened controls since 2020, with a dedicated unit tasked with spotting illegal listings and sanctioning offenders.
Number of apartments returned to the traditional rental market following controls by the dedicated unit.
A new ordinance specific to tourist accommodations, adopted early 2024, plans to further strengthen these obligations, notably by formalizing the systematic registration of operators and linking it to the Housing Code. Its implementation is, however, suspended pending an appeal before the Constitutional Court.
In parallel, Brussels has chosen to act also through the Housing Code: obligation to meet strict habitability standards for homes put up for rent, strengthened controls, strong sanctions for homes left vacant for over 12 months (some of which are suspected of actually being used only for tourist purposes). The signal is clear: any property that leaves the residential market long-term without justification faces fines.
Flanders and Wallonia: Harmonization, Permits, and Local Quotas
In Flanders, a 2016 decree regulates tourist accommodations, with the obligation for all operators to register and obtain a registration number to display on platforms. The region also sets safety, hygiene, and comfort standards, stricter for professional operators. Several cities – Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp – add their own layer of regulation: ban on converting houses into vacation homes, freeze on new hotels in certain perimeters, extra taxation of tourist residences compared to hotels, limitation on cruise ship tourists.
In Wallonia, creating a new tourist accommodation generally requires an urban planning permit, according to the 2010 Tourism Code and a 2024 decree (pending application). Some municipalities, like Durbuy, apply explicit quotas for cottages and second homes to limit excessive transformation of villages into tourist zones.
In the three regions, the guiding principle is the same: bring tourist accommodations out of the regulatory “gray zone”, make them visible, countable, taxable, and controllable. It is, moreover, a major statistical challenge for Statbel and Eurostat, which are trying to integrate data from major platforms (Airbnb, Booking, TripAdvisor, Expedia) into official statistics without double counting, using innovative methods of web‑scraping and automated recognition.
Tourism and Real Estate: An Inseparable Pair for Investors
For real estate investors, tourism is not only a risk factor for resident accessibility: it is also a central dimension of investment strategies.
Tourist Rentals, Hotels, Vacation Homes: What Yield?
Belgium offers a very wide range of real estate products linked to tourism: urban hotels, resorts, vacation homes on the coast or in the Ardennes, short‑stay apartments in major cities, coliving for students and young international professionals, etc. Yields vary by location and property type.
A few orders of magnitude help situate the market:
| City / Segment | Gross Rental Yield (range) |
|---|---|
| Brussels – Classic Apartments | ≈ 4.9 to 6.0 % |
| Antwerp – Apartments | ≈ 4 to 5 % |
| Ghent – Apartments | ≈ 4.5 to 5.2 % |
| Liège – Apartments | ≈ 5 to 6 % |
| Bruges – Apartments | ≈ 3.8 to 4.2 % (very touristy market, but high prices) |
In tourist areas like the coast or Ardennes, yields on vacation homes can be attractive in high season, but very dependent on occupancy. Studies report a 25% increase in vacation rental bookings of the Airbnb type in the Ardennes in 2023 and a 15% increase in leisure property prices over one year. On the coast, seasonality remains strong but hotel occupancy rates often exceed 90% during major summer weekends.
Investors must integrate into their profitability analysis the evolution of rules and compliance costs. A project viable under 2015 regulations may no longer be so in 2025, due to factors such as caps on rental days, tourist taxes, permit constraints, and registration obligations, on top of energy, safety, and urban planning standards.
A Permanent Trade-off Between Residential and Tourist Markets
One question runs through the entire debate: for an owner, is it more profitable to rent long-term to a household or short-term to tourists? The answer depends on location, property type, seasonality, expenses, and taxation. But the mere existence of the trade-off is enough to make platforms a structuring market player.
In the most touristy neighborhoods of major Belgian cities, the income potential linked to seasonal rental is so much higher in high season that many homes switch to tourist use. This phenomenon, sometimes marginal at the scale of an entire city, can become massive and completely transform the rental supply of certain streets.
Long-term, this confrontation between two markets (residential and tourist) forces public authorities to clarify what they consider the priority use of the housing stock in certain areas. The closure of new hotels in Bruges’ center, the ban on new vacation homes in Ghent, or the limitation of rental days in Brussels are all responses to this fundamental question.
Towards a More Sustainable Coexistence Between Tourism and the Right to Housing?
The impact of tourism on the Belgian real estate market is neither reducible to a mechanical effect of rising prices nor a uniform phenomenon. It is rather a series of localized tensions, exacerbated by a context of general shortage and strong attractiveness of certain cities.
We can draw some key lines:
Tourism, via short-term rentals like Airbnb, exerts a measurable effect on rising rents in high-density neighborhoods in Brussels. Purchase prices seem less directly affected in the capital, but European studies suggest a possible long-term contagion effect. The professionalization of the market reinforces an investment logic, moving away from the sharing economy. In response, Flemish cities like Bruges and Ghent are implementing policies (bans, quotas, taxation) to contain overtourism.
The question remains whether these tools will suffice against strong trends: structural tourism growth, digitalization of connections, stagnation of new construction, and continuing increase in the number of households. In the short term, the most visible effect is a widening divide between those who can turn tourism into a source of real estate income – investors, multi-property owners, large operators – and those who suffer rent increases.
In Belgium, the tourist flow remains overall manageable and massive overtourism is limited, unlike cities like Barcelona or Venice. However, warning signals are appearing regarding housing access: wait times for social housing, growing share of housing expenses in budgets, and increased difficulties for young people to become homeowners.
In the medium term, the country’s ability to reconcile tourist attractiveness and the right to housing will depend on three main levers: increased housing production (including affordable housing), finer regulation of tourist use of the existing stock, and a mobility policy that makes neighborhoods currently considered “peripheral” but well-connected attractive again.
In this equation, tourism should not be seen solely as a scapegoat: it remains an important contributor to the economy, employment, and the vitality of urban centers. But as long as the real estate market remains so tight, every night spent by a visitor in a central apartment will pose the same question: could it have, should it have, been one more night for a city resident?
A French business owner around 50, with a financial portfolio already well-structured in Europe, wanted to diversify part of his capital into residential real estate in Belgium to seek rental yield and exposure to a stable eurozone market. Allocated budget: 400,000 to 600,000 euros, without using credit.
After analyzing several Belgian markets (Brussels, Antwerp, Liège), the chosen strategy consisted of targeting an apartment or a small rental building in a growing neighborhood of Brussels or Antwerp, combining a target gross rental yield of 5 to 6% – the higher the yield, the greater the risk – and medium-term appreciation potential, with an overall ticket (acquisition + notary fees + potential light renovations) of about 500,000 euros. The mission included: market and neighborhood selection, connection with a local network (real estate agent, notary, tax advisor), choice of the most suitable structure (direct ownership or via a Belgian asset-holding company) and definition of a diversification plan over time.
This type of support allows the investor to benefit from Belgian market opportunities while mastering legal, tax, and rental risks and integrating this asset into an overall wealth management strategy.
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Cyril Jarnias is an independent expert in international wealth management with over 20 years of experience. As an expatriate himself, he is dedicated to helping individuals and business leaders build, protect, and pass on their wealth with complete peace of mind.
On his website, cyriljarnias.com, he shares his expertise on international real estate, offshore company formation, and expatriation.
Thanks to his expertise, he offers sound advice to optimize his clients' wealth management. Cyril Jarnias is also recognized for his appearances in many prestigious media outlets such as BFM Business, les Français de l’étranger, Le Figaro, Les Echos, and Mieux vivre votre argent, where he shares his knowledge and know-how in wealth management.
