Buying Property in Belgium

Get a notaris to take you through the various stages and explain all the implications. You will need one BEFORE you put in any offer on a property and the fees are fixed, based on the value of the property, not on the amount of work the notaris does for you. It isn't difficult to find a notaris in Flanders that speaks good English.

Use Immoweb.be to get a feel for the market, what you can afford and the price ranges for the sort of property you want. There are some advice pages too.

If you need finance, find out what sort of loan you will be able to take out. Your bank is a good starting point but there are plenty of mortgage providers out there.

Four things that are very different in Belgium:

The moment you put in an offer on a property, and it is accepted by the seller, you are committed to buying it unless you can't meet a condition (usually on finance) spelt out in your offer (so get the wording of the offer checked by the notaris). However, the seller is equally committed so you can't be gazumped.

Taxes, etc, on house purchase are high, as a rough guide reckon on 15% of the purchase price of an older property, 25% of a new or nearly new one, and a bit more if you need a mortgage. Your notaris can give you precise figures.

It isn't usual to have the condition of the property checked by a "surveyor" so it is down to you to look very carefully for potential problems. That said, houses in Belgium are usually well built and, although there will always be something that needs putting right, it is unlikely to be a huge problem unless you are buying an obvious wreck. If you do want to buy a wreck, get a builder to look over it and give you an estimate for the work required to bring it up to your required standard .

Once you have purchased a property, there are restrictions on who you can leave it to in your will. Another question for the notaris, and, unless the fallback scenario exactly meets your requirements, you will need to write new Belgian wills.

When we were buying an apt, we also seached high and low for a book a la style of, 'buying a house in belgium for dummies' but there is no such type of books. We went to the bookstores to search for books on buying a house and there is none. We also asked their clerk, and their funny response was, talk to a notaire and they will guide you through.

What they don't tell you is that like most other things in belgium, notaires are really efficient at charging you money and sending you a bill, but they really suck at providing excellent service. So best thing to do is make sure you get one that has been recommended by somebody else and even then, they might not provide excellent service.

But in terms of a buying guide, the lame articles on immoweb give you an idea of what happens, the notaire.be site also explains a lot of things, and basically when you cross a term that you don't know, google it and ask friends if youhave any that have bought any properties here in Belgium.

Also, we had a retired lady who was a real state agent who moved to france and she was a friend of a colleague, and she managed to explain the whole process to us. Unfortunately when we had many other questions, she wasn't readily available as she didn't have internet connection where she was. But when i asked her, how come there isnt a guide to guide buyers on this process, she was like, oh, but it is not really that complicated. Well is not, if you know what needs to happen.

Make sure you choose a good notaris. I've found out not long ago that apparently you cannot change notaris once you have chosen one to handle the purchase of the house. Your dossier will stay with him for life, or until you sell that house. I totally regret choosing the one I did, and now trying to work out how to take my file somewhere else without costing me an arm, a leg and a kidney. I am in Gent not in Brussels.
BTW, if anyone have other info regarding sacking your notaris and taking your file somewhere else, I would appreciate it if you could share.
Thank you in advance.