leaving a vacant home will now be an offense in Wallonia

Say goodbye to under-occupied secondary residences in Wallonia. Leaving accommodation vacant for too long will now be an offense in this Belgian region, announced his mMinister-President Elio Di Rupo on Twitter, Friday January 21. According to local authorities, too many Walloon households have difficulty finding accommodation.

Any dwelling with a consumption of less than 15 cubic meters of water per year or 100 kWh per year will be considered unoccupied, specifies Elio Di Rupo, pointing out that“a judge will be able to order any useful measure in order to occupy a dwelling” and “fines are also provided for during long periods of vacancy”.

In Wallonia, there are too many Walloon households who are having difficulty finding housing, while many dwellings remain unoccupied.
From now on, keeping unoccupied accommodation in Wallonia will be considered an offence. pic.twitter.com/sDNZi38fa4

— Elio Di Rupo (@eliodirupo) January 21, 2022

In doing so, the Walloon government has definitively approved the decrees implementing the decree voted by Parliament in 2021, recalls The evening. “This measure has been awaited for ten years. In a few months, we will be able to put some unoccupied housing back on the market”, explains in the columns of the newspaper Christophe Collignon, the Minister of Housing.

According to the daily, the fine applicable to owners will amount to between 500 and 12,500 euros per dwelling, “depending on the length of the facade and the number of floors of the accommodation, for a period of twelve months without interruption of vacancy”.