What an ad has to show
Since 1 November 2024, the Brussels Housing Code has required the reference rent in any public communication about a rental (article 217).
Commune by commune
With blanks credited to the landlord, the share of ads above the line is highest in Ixelles (66%), Saint-Gilles (62%) and the City of Brussels (48%), and lowest in Jette (4%), Anderlecht (6%) and Evere (13%).
The full table
| Commune | Ads | Blanks credited to the landlord | What the ad states |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ixelles | 79 | 66% ± 10 | 90% |
| Saint-Gilles | 79 | 62% ± 11 | 94% |
| City of Brussels | 154 | 48% ± 8 | 74% |
| Etterbeek | 90 | 41% ± 10 | 81% |
| Watermael-Boitsfort | 27 | 41% ± 19 | 67% |
| Uccle | 98 | 37% ± 10 | 64% |
| Woluwe-Saint-Pierre | 103 | 28% ± 9 | 52% |
| Schaerbeek | 107 | 26% ± 8 | 59% |
| Forest | 70 | 23% ± 10 | 67% |
| Woluwe-Saint-Lambert | 99 | 21% ± 8 | 42% |
| Auderghem | 60 | 18% ± 10 | 43% |
| Molenbeek-Saint-Jean | 49 | 14% ± 10 | 47% |
| Evere | 48 | 13% ± 9 | 27% |
| Anderlecht | 85 | 6% ± 5 | 25% |
| Jette | 45 | 4% ± 6 | 18% |
| Berchem-Sainte-Agathe | 8 | too few ads | |
| Ganshoren | 10 | too few ads | |
| Koekelberg | 15 | too few ads | |
| Saint-Josse-ten-Noode | 9 | too few ads | |
Ads by kind of flat
With blanks credited to the landlord, the share of ads rises with size and is lowest for the best EPC classes.
| Kind of flat | Blanks credited to the landlord | What the ad states |
|---|---|---|
| Studio or one bedroom | 30% | 65% |
| Two bedrooms | 42% | 70% |
| Three bedrooms or more | 49% | 62% |
| Built 2000 or later | 40% | 50% |
| Built before 2000 | 50% | 72% |
| EPC A or B | 29% | 43% |
| EPC C or D | 46% | 70% |
| EPC E to G | 42% | 74% |
About to sign?
- Find the line for your flat
- Each home has its own line, 20% above its reference rent, before charges. Paste the ad below, or enter the address and the home’s features on loyers.brussels.
- Ask about the gap
- If the ad leaves out the reference rent, ask for it. If the rent is above the line, ask the landlord before you sign which comfort features justify it.
- What the law says
- Since 1 May 2025 a landlord must not propose an abusive rent (article 224/1 of the Brussels Housing Code). More than 20% above the reference, a rent is presumed abusive unless the landlord can point to specific comfort features. A rent inside the line can also be presumed abusive when the home has defects. The Commission Paritaire Locative gives an opinion, and a justice of the peace decides.
- Where to get help
- Bruxelles Logement answers lease questions free of charge on 0800 40 400, option 4.
Check the ad before you sign
Paste the Immoweb link and get a free report: the asking rent against the official grid, the real move-in cost and the red flags.
The verdict up front: how the rent compares, and what moving in really costsOpen the full 11-page sampleMethod, 31 October to 1 November 2026
- What was measured
- Asking rents on Immoweb, read from 31 October to 1 November 2026: unfurnished apartments, each ad’s rent before charges against the reference rent loyers.brussels returns for that flat. The line is 20% above that reference.
- Earlier work
- SmartBlock analysed 3,000 ads, reported by L’Echo on 9 January 2026: 75% above the reference and 34% above the line, with Ixelles highest, the same pattern as here. Read the L’Echo article
- The sample
- All 3,565 flats for rent on Immoweb in the 22 Brussels postal areas were listed, then ads were drawn at random until each area had 100 priced flats or ran out, which gave 1,240. 5 went offline between readings, leaving 1,235. Brussels-wide figures weight each postal area by its number of ads. A commune’s figure pools the ads priced inside it, unweighted, across all its postal areas for the City of Brussels, and prints from 25 ads. Margins are 95% intervals. The study is rerun each quarter and this page updated.
- The ads left out
- 586 furnished flats, which ask about €20.8/m², a different market. 543 ads without an address or a surface, which the grid can’t price: 59 of them, drawn at random, ask €15.7/m², against €15.6/m² for the priced ads.
- The two readings
- Blanks credited to the landlord: what the ad states stands, and anything it leaves blank counts as present: a second bathroom (also where it lists one bathroom and one shower room), outdoor space, storage, a garage, a build year of 2000 or later, EPC A. A comfort the ad rules out stays out. What the ad states: the ad’s own facts, with a thermostat wherever it has central heating, and a second bathroom only when the ad counts two of a kind; central heating and double glazing are taken as present when the ad is silent, and any other comfort it leaves blank as absent. A missing build year counts as before 2000, and a missing EPC as E.
- Why it is a range
- Ads leave a lot blank: parking on 76% of ads, storage on 48%, the build year on 41%, outdoor space on 38%, bathrooms on 1%. Measured on one typical flat, a second bathroom adds about 12% to the reference, a build after 2000 about 9%, a garage about 5%, and a thermostat or a terrace about 2% each.
- The grid
- It rests on 14,042 tenant surveys from 2017, 2018 and 2020, indexed each year, last in January 2026.
- Exact figures
- Blanks credited to the landlord: 39.2% of ads above the line, plus or minus 2.6, and 79% above the reference, plus or minus 1.9. What the ad states: 66.3% of ads above the line, plus or minus 2.2, and 95% above the reference, plus or minus 0.9.
To quote this study: immetrics, “Brussels rental ads against the official reference rent”, 1 November 2026, https://immetrics.be/reference-rent/rental-ads-study