More people on social housing waiting list than ever, especially Antwerpians and singles

Since March 2024, new prospective tenants can register for social housing with the Central Registration Register (CIR). This is an online counter where new tenants can submit an application and existing candidates can reconfirm their registration.

In this way Flemish housing minister Depraetere hopes to get a better idea of the number of people waiting for social housing. 52,322 new candidates registered, bringing the total number of prospective tenants to 199,085.

‘Almost 200,000 families are looking for affordable housing,’ says Ms Depraetere. "It is good that we now have an update on the waiting list. In this way we can better assess who needs housing where. Meanwhile, prospective social tenants are forced to rent on the private market, but that means their purchasing power is under pressure. We really need to avoid that."

Singles and Antwerpians

Just over half of all prospective tenants are singles. This is a group that is only growing, as the proportion of older people and singles in our society continues to increase.

‘Singles with a limited budget have a hard time on the rental market because they cannot share costs and compete against hundreds of other applicants,’ says Ms Depraetere. 'A social rental property is the ideal way for them to still be able to live affordably, but many properties are not suitable for singles. It’s also hard to accommodate larger families.'

The figures also show that waiting lists vary widely by region. About a third of the number of prospective tenants (67,325) are looking for social housing in Antwerp province, while the number of people on the waiting list is lowest in Flemish Brabant (22,834).

In East Flanders, 46,620 people are waiting for housing. In Limburg there are 22,953 candidates.  In West Flanders the figure is 34,248.

Build and renovate

The EU recently reprimanded the Flemish authorities due to poor housing policies in northern Belgium. The EU is not imposing any measures, but wants to encourage Flanders to take action.

Ms Depraetere now wants to build and renovate affordable housing in coming years to remedy the shortage. 'Too little social housing has really been built in recent years. We will invest €6 billion to turn the tide, because we really need to.'

The minister has therefore instructed housing organisations to focus on that. ‘In the past, they had to deal with other things like mergers, but their focus now really has to shift to rebuilding and tackling vacant properties.’

Ms Depraetere is now encouraging all city and municipal authorities to take action. What is being called a new ‘binding social objective’ will go into effect from 2026 to achieve this. It will mandate extra social housing construction to ensure waiting lists are shortened.

'In recent years, the policy with regard to municipalities that did not do their part and left their residents in the lurch has been too lax. Municipalities that do not do their part will have to contribute towards a rent grant for people waiting for social housing,' Ms Depraetere explained. ‘In that way, people who are waiting will get direct support. It seems only logical.’