Home renovations in Belgium: why the pace must rise (and why it is not happening today)

Belgium faces a considerable challenge. To live climate-neutrally by 2050, the pace at which homes are renovated has to rise sharply. Recent economic analyses put the current renovation rate three to four times too low to meet that target. And the need has never been greater.

An old housing stock, with a large energy challenge

The Belgian housing stock is exceptionally old on average. In Flanders, 66% of the buildings were built before 1981, in Wallonia 78% and in Brussels that rises to 93%. Only a small share of homes is of recent date and meets present-day energy standards.

That age weighs heavily on energy consumption. Belgian homes are among the most energy-hungry in Europe. Despite progress in recent years, Belgium remains, after Luxembourg, one of the countries with the highest emissions per inhabitant from heating and cooling homes. Renewable energy still plays too limited a role in this.

Renovations do happen… but not fast

Renovations are an important lever for making homes more energy-efficient. Yet the figures show that renovation intensity in Belgium has been all but stagnant for more than 20 years. Only 2021 saw a temporary peak, helped by increased insulation grants during the covid period. After that, the pace fell back again.

That is striking, because the social and policy pressure to renovate is rising. In Flanders, for example, a renovation obligation applies when an energy-inefficient home is bought. For now, that pressure is not translating into a structural acceleration.

Why people keep hesitating to renovate

That renovations fail to materialise has little to do with unwillingness. On the contrary. The research shows that several barriers hold households back:

• Financial uncertaintyBLOCK Construction and renovation costs have risen sharply. For many families it is unclear whether a renovation pays for itself over time, despite grants and subsidies.

• Complexity and a lack of overviewBLOCK Which measures are needed? What does that realistically cost? Which grants apply? Many owners lack reliable, objective information.BLOCK

• Organisational barriersBLOCK Finding contractors, coordinating the works and moving out temporarily or living with the disruption make renovation a stressful process.BLOCK

• Socio-demographic factorsBLOCK Older owners, single people and single-parent families demonstrably renovate less, often because they lack the means or the energy to take on major works.

The paradox: intention grows, action lags behind

Notably, the willingness to renovate rose sharply again at the end of 2025, above all among people between 30 and 49. The intention is there, but the step to actual execution remains difficult.

That tension is exactly where things go wrong today: people do want to renovate, but they lack the clarity, the confidence and the grip to actually start.

Clarity as the key to acceleration

If Belgium wants to raise the renovation rate, stricter rules or extra grants will not be enough. What is needed is better guidance, transparency and insight. People need to know up front what they are getting into: what are realistic costs, which measures have impact, how does that relate to the value of the home and to the financing?

That is precisely where the lever lies to turn renovation from a barrier into a feasible step.

Renovating without guesswork

The challenge is large: an estimated 80% of the Belgian building stock still has to be tackled to meet the climate targets. That calls not only for investment, but above all for confidence in the renovation process.

By mapping renovation in an understandable, well-founded and objective way, owners, buyers, banks and real estate agents can decide faster and better. That is the only way the renovation rate really goes up.

Source: KBC Economic Research Reports

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