182,000 candidate tenants on waiting list for social housing | Inland

If you cannot find a house or apartment due to circumstances on the private housing market, you can rely on social housing in Flanders. The prospective tenant must register with a social housing provider for this. In 2021 there were about 182,000 people on a waiting list for social housing. That is more than the year before, when there were still 169,000 people on the list.

Minister Diependaele points out that the number of people waiting is increasing, but that the increase is decreasing. “In 2016 the increase was still 18 percent, in 2018 it was about 14 percent, in 2020 10 percent and in 2021 8 percent.”

According to the minister, the list was exceptionally not updated for two years. This updating is accompanied by deletions of candidate tenants and updating the data, so that errors in national register number and/or name and date of birth are filtered out. “Now that the update has exceptionally not been done for two years in a row due to the corona pandemic, you get a distorted picture,” says Diependaele, who adds that a high number of allocations is happening. “In 2021, 11,277 candidate tenants were allocated social housing. That means 10 percent more allocations than in 2020. Of those allocations, a quarter took place after a waiting period of less than one or two years. The average waiting period is now 3 years and 10 months.”

2021 was a record year for rent premiums and rent subsidies. At the end of 2021, 15,924 candidate tenants received a rental premium, compared to 13,522 in 2020. The average amount was 180 euros per month.

The number of people entitled to a housing benefit also increased in 2021. There were 24,656 unique beneficiaries who received the allowance for at least 1 month, compared to 23,388 the year before. In total, more than 88.25 million euros in premiums (37.25 million) and subsidies (51 million) were paid out.