Hi, I'm considering to buy a 1/2 bedroom appartment in Brussels this year. I earn 2500/month and have a solid down-payment, so I could comfortably afford a 700€/month mortgage.
What scares me are all the annex costs; tax, insurance, utilities, charges. If it makes my monthly cost reach 1200€, then I'm starting to doubt my decision.
Could you please let me know how much your grand total/month is for your living space? (and of course what kind of appt. you have, because utilities for a 50sqm are not those of a 150sqm)
A 700€ mortgage would on the very low end unless you have a very big chunk of your own money you can put down.
The property tax is something you can/should know while visiting places you are interested in. Usually around 600-2.5k per year.
Utilities again will depend a lot on the insulation, the EPC/PEB attestation provides some guidance here. I think in general you can estimate at least 75€ (for a a very well insulated) to 200€ (for very bad insulated).
Charges of the building also will depend widely some are minimal others charge for extras (conceriege, extra funds for the coproperty, etc etc).
The insurance (fire) should be quite minimal as usually there is a so called “blokpolis” be sure to check this.
Make a trip to your bank to see what you can currently want or afford to loan or simulate online (KBC, ING, Crelan) provide decent estimates of what your payments will be.
When visiting, ask for the building charges, and the report of the last general meeting of co owners
And remember that the seller is legally obligated to provide those so if they try to avoid it then it's not a good sign.
Things to be mindful of:
- prrécompte mobilier can be quite high at some places, here it's 1800 per year for a 100 m2 apt
- fixed costs in buildings with a lift: can quickly be about 150-200 extra per month
- you will have unforeseen costs, in a year after buying me and my girlfriend had a water leak (new parquet) and new electric boiler for example. Keep some cash and I advise you to try and save a certain amount each month for these things.
These are the things I learnt the "hard" way (still happy with how everything turned out though). Good luck!
Also: if you find something that you would like to upgrade a bit (kitchen, bathroom, ...) it's always a good idea to first live in it for a couple of months. These things tend to become less and less important, in my opinion. If we're talking about the more aesthetic upgrades anyway. Things like isolation and other "investments" are best done immediately.
Yes, these are the things I'm afraid of. Lift + high précompte can easily be 300€ of cash burned each month for no return.
Well just inform yourself before buying and no need to be afraid.
well, those are taxes, you'd pay those on any property you'd possess regardless...
You should also be careful with the PEB: in 2033 your PEB will need to be at least E and in 2045 it will need to be at least C.
So if the apartment is currently F then you can expect some big costs in the future (unless they cancel that law but do you want to bet on that?)
Yes and this is the actual rule. But how knows if they make this rule even stricter in the near futur.
Also, not only they can make this rule become more strict about PEB, but they also can create new constraints rules in the futur.
The chance of them making it stricter is very low. It is already mission impossible for 2033.
I respect your opinion. But I believe in the exact opposite.
European politicians have become so unstable and crazy.
I believe not only they will add new fiscal rules against team estate but also against private pensions and savings accounts.
80m2 - 1 bedroom All extra fees (so everything except the mortgage and renovation costs) = 300€/month.
My apartment is 70m2 & 2 bed - 1300 mortgage, 80 in insurance costs, 250-300 utilities probably (don’t have an exact amount yet), first year so haven’t paid property tax yet so probably 100 per month on top so probably around 1700-1800 excluding reserve fund & syndic payments
Quite in line with my 2BR appartment. Recently bought?
Property tax was 1800 here in Schaerbeek
Yes indeed just bought it, still in the moving in process
The costs really depend on your situation and you should probably ask if your bank can help simulate this.
What I underestimated were the charges related to being in a co-proprietorship... For example, the city is basically forcing our association (i.e. by imposing a tax penalty) to renovate the building because it is "dilapidated". To be fair, there are worse buildings on our street, but it seems the city only really starts to act on properties that have recently been sold/bought. Recently we also increased the contributions for the commons because cost of living has been going up.
where in Brussels tho? I live in Jette and those numbers seem very manageable for a 1 bedroom (maybe not easy for a 2 bedroom).
Keep in mind if there are upcoming renovations planned for to the building, like adding solar panels, insulating the facades etc. These things cost.... Also, only 700??you must have a lot of downpayment
The costs vary a lot.
Is it for you or to rent out?
You have to pay the yearly tax (these were recently increased since Brussels is in financial troubles ). You can easily count on 100+€ a month (1500 a year)
Then whatever utilities you consume but we could argue that you’d pay that when renting anyway.
Then the building costs- from 0 to 500+ a month
Then savings tor heavy works - more likely to be higher on old buildings obviously
All these infios you need to ask when you visit apartments
also dont forget your cadastre could be upto 2k a year
If you're a first-time homebuyer, you won't have to pay some of the registering rights (droits d'enregistrement) if you satisfy certain conditions.
As for the property tax (précompte immobilier), check it out here. For my landlord it's around 700€/year.
Insurance is quite low, around 10-15€ a month.
Buy above PEB D-, prefer a heatpump (gas will be taxed to 21% in 2030) if possible. Utilities can go up to 180-200 if you have to heat like a maniac.
Only buy in small copro (4 apartments tops). Bigger ones tend to have heavier monthly charges related to the copro (syndic; concierge; whatever consequence of some dumb decision they took years ago)
The last one (about small buildings) used to be sound advice but becomes less and less true. Small buildings often have done very little to no renovation works an when tha bill comes it will be split among a very small number of owners.
700? Sorry but finding something for that price will be a studio of 29m .
Not suitable at all. Would look into getting more money first.
Rent =/= monthly mortgage repayment.
If you buy something for 200k and have 150k for a downpayment, your monthly repayment will be very, very low.
700 would let me borrow around 150k based on 25 years. 200-250k is a range where you can comfortably find a place in the nicer parts of Schaerbeek.
Schaarbeek has a lot of divided mansions which have a different type of cost because you split the costs by fewer people but you also probably don't have an elevator, which mean lower monthly costs.
I live in a 1950s appartment, 110m2 and pay 400€ for electricity, water, heating, coprop costs, saving for a coprop renov, other costs. Plus 1500€ taxes a year. I would not have bought this place if these costs had been that high when I bought but I like my app a lot and moving wouldn't make that much sense right now.
Hello, I already responded somewhere else but just pointing out that the precompte mobilier in Schaerbeek is quite high. Also I think 200-250 is quite cheap? I mean for a 2 bedroom
switch to a specif subreddit for this kind of question :))
Couldn't find one, mind sharing the one you're thinking of?
r/BEReal_Estate exists too
Thanks!
https://preview.redd.it/2f3py8wsaqcg1.png?width=458&format=png&auto=webp&s=7c04fe48891b5da3f121628b56ce03fcb36e8dd7
Thanks but chances of finding someone from Brussels in a worldwide subreddit are quite slim.
yes but your question is quite basic and not related to Brussels specifically, ask GPT, go for youtube videos, meet one or two bankers or Mortgage negociator.
asking for general expenses costs is totally irrelevant if you don't have many details of the appartment you buy. You will just end up with different unrelated number that you won't be able to use in your business case.
I don't understand all the downvotes
I would not buy real estate anymore in EU.
Too many risks with the energy transitions rules.
You will end paying 2 or 3 times the price of the appertement.
Almost all the money you earn in your life will be spent to pay for the real estate.
They will come to look for money in the pocket of home owners and car owners.
And if the apartment is high energy rating already what will happen? Will that still be bad?
We can't know. And that's exactly the problem. We can't plan based on stable predictions.
Actually yes, if we buy PEB A we might think : "Ok we are in order for the next 25 years".
But have you seen the behaviour of belgian and european politicians ? Every other day they create new taxes for am whatever reason.
It can be ecology, it can be Ukraine, it can be any new crazy reason to make new rules.
Europe has no natural ressources and big public debts. . . . I'm 100% sure they will continue to create new constraints taxes on real estate.