Belgian property tax: how the annual bill is built

The cadastral income is not a tax: it is the base the property tax is computed on. If that notion is new to you, start with our guide to cadastral income. This guide covers only the step from one to the other.

The formula, in plain terms

Two operations, in this order:

• Indexed cadastral income = non-indexed cadastral income × 2.3000 (the 2026 indexation coefficient).
• Property tax = indexed cadastral income × (regional rate + provincial or agglomeration surcharges + municipal surcharges).

The cadastral income is set by the federal level, through the Cadastre, but property tax is a regional tax, topped up by local surcharges. That division of powers is why no single national table can give you your property tax: you need the municipality. It is also why a figure quoted to you "for Belgium" is meaningless.

The three layers of the rate

Do not be misled by the apparent gap between the Flemish 3.97 % and the Walloon or Brussels 1.25 %. Surcharges are not computed the same way on either side of the language border, and the final result is closer than it looks. Comparing the Regions on the base rate alone is a classic error — one you will see repeated on expat forums.

A worked example: Anderlecht

Take a property in Anderlecht, with the 2026 rates used by our estimator, before reductions and before the BE HOME premium:

• Non-indexed cadastral income: €1,000
• Indexed cadastral income for 2026: 1,000 × 2.3000 = €2,300
• Combined rate: 1.25 % (Region) + 12.3625 % (agglomeration) + 48.125 % (municipality) = 61.7375 %
• Property tax: 2,300 × 61.7375 % ≈ €1,420

Municipal rates are voted every year: check the current year's figures for the municipality that concerns you before reusing this number.

Note what this example shows about the shape of the bill. The regional rate contributes about €29 of the €1,420. Almost everything else is local. That is the opposite of the intuition most newcomers arrive with.

Why your neighbour two streets away pays less

Municipal surcharges vary widely. Two identical houses with the same cadastral income, two kilometres apart but on either side of a municipal boundary, can differ by hundreds of euros a year.

This deserves a place in your budget before you buy, alongside the one-off purchase costs. The difference is that purchase costs are paid once, whereas property tax returns every year, for as long as you hold the property. Over a twenty-year ownership, a €400 annual gap between two municipalities is €8,000 — more than most people negotiate off the price.

The reductions that apply next

The gross calculation is not the end of it. Depending on your Region and your situation:

• Modest dwelling: if the total non-indexed cadastral income of your properties does not exceed €745, a 25 % reduction applies. All three Regions provide it, with different definitions of "sole ownership". It is the non-indexed figure that counts here.
• Dependent children: €125 per child in Wallonia, from two children onwards; €8.80 per child multiplied by (1 + opcentiemen) in Flanders; 10 % per child in Brussels.
• Person with a disability: each Region has its own scale — from €125 to €375 net in Wallonia, €17.60 multiplied by the opcentiemen in Flanders, 20 % in Brussels.
• BE HOME premium in Brussels: €164 in 2026, deducted automatically for the dwelling where you are registered as resident.
• Vacancy and unproductiveness: a proportional remission is possible in Wallonia (at least 180 days, involuntary) and in Flanders (at least 90 days). Nothing left in Brussels, where such properties have been subject to property tax since 2017.

Many of these entitlements are never claimed. Two of them deserve particular attention if you have just moved to Belgium: the Flemish and Walloon child reductions depend on children being registered at the address, and the Brussels BE HOME premium depends on your being registered as resident there. Registering your domicile at the commune is therefore not only an administrative formality — it has a direct effect on this bill.

Questions newcomers ask

Is this the equivalent of the French taxe foncière, or of UK council tax?

It is the functional equivalent of the French taxe foncière: an annual tax tied to owning a property. But it is assessed on a cadastral income expressed in 1975 values and then indexed, not on a regularly revised rental value. It is not the equivalent of council tax, which is paid by the occupier: Belgian property tax is owed by the owner.

Who pays: the owner or the tenant?

Property tax is owed by the holder of the real right over the property — owner, usufructuary — not by the tenant.

Is a cadastral income of €745 a lot?

That is precisely the threshold, in non-indexed value, of the "modest dwelling" regime: below it, you are entitled to a 25 % reduction. Many flats and modest houses qualify without their owners knowing.

Does the property tax rise every year?

Mechanically, yes: the indexation coefficient of the cadastral income rises from year to year, which lifts the base even if your property and the municipal rates are unchanged. On top of that, the municipality or the province may raise their surcharges.

When does the bill arrive, and do I get one automatically?

The Region issues an assessment notice each year for the property you held the real right over on 1 January. It is sent to you: you do not file a return for it. If you have just bought, expect the first notice the year after the purchase, and check how the tax was apportioned between you and the seller in the deed — that apportionment is a private arrangement, not a tax rule.

Official sources

These are the pages our rates come from. Belgian tax administrations publish in French and Dutch; there is no full English version of most of them, so a browser translation is often the practical way in.

• Précompte immobilier — SPW Finances (Wallonia, French)
• Berekening van de onroerende voorheffing — Vlaamse Belastingdienst (Flanders, Dutch)
• Précompte immobilier — be.brussels (Brussels, French)
• Prime BE HOME — be.brussels (Brussels, French)