˼ TRENDS
16
ICONIC
Affordable living In today’s climate, it has become quite a challenge for young people to buy or rent property without substantial financial support. As a rule, we should need to allocate no more than a third of our family income for our housing budget, but in Brussels, this is already as high as 40%.
Is affordable still feasible? These days, we all know someone looking in
which means that the number of tenants is
vain for an affordable home. We can no longer
rising sharply. We have seen this trend for
ignore the fact that real-estate prices will keep
some time in our neighbouring countries.
rising on the private housing and rental markets year after year. This particularly affects
— Increasing construction costs
young people and the financially less well
The sustainability transition also has a role
off, and they are rightly concerned about the
to play. Property developers are making sig-
future. Is this going to change, or will it become
nificant investments in sustainability, but
the new normal? So, what causes these
that comes at a cost. Construction costs are
increases and what are the solutions, if any?
increasing due to the need for more and more expensive materials. These include additional
— Aspiration to homeownership is a thing
insulation, ventilation techniques, solar pan-
of the past
els, and heat pumps. In the long run, these
One reason is that demand far exceeds sup-
will benefit us financially, but installing them
ply. Belgium’s population keeps rising, and
doesn’t come cheap.
family compositions are entirely different from 20 to 30 years ago. There are now many
— How are our northern neighbors faring?
more single-parent families and two-person
In the Netherlands, this has been a prob-
households. And it is precisely those families
lem for much longer. Developers there are
that are looking for more compact homes.
pushing hard for affordable housing. They
Also, the aging population is increasing the
do this by increasing the supply and select-
demand for smaller homes that are closer to
ing large-scale area developments, allowing
stores and amenities.
them to build more efficiently, which makes everything more affordable. They also like to
Moreover, young people are less likely to
work with housing corporations. In this way,
invest heavily in their homes. “Aspiration to
they help to increase the supply of social
homeownership” is a thing of the past. They
housing. The largest property developer in
are more inclined to spend money on travel
the Netherlands, BPD, has also set up its own
and experiences. Much like lifetime jobs, life-
housing fund. This allows them to help people
time residences will likely disappear as well.
who earn too much to rent social housing but
People find it less necessary to own a house,
not enough to buy or take out a mortgage.
