Fewer than 1% of households with mortgages choose to defer their loan payments in order to have the means to pay their energy bills, L’Echo and De Tijd reported on Thursday.
Since 1 October 2022, households that have difficulty paying their energy bills have been able to ask their bank for a one-year deferment of payment on the principal of their mortgage (but not the interest).
To date, 7,605 applications have been accepted by banks, according to Febelfin, the representative organisation for the Belgian financial sector.
This deferment is granted on condition that it concerns a main residence, that the applicant has no more than €10.000 and no arrears as at 1 March 2022, and that a repayment plan is underway or requested from the energy supplier.
For those who do not meet all these conditions or who prefer to opt for a shorter deferral period (of 3 or 6 months), it is still possible to negotiate a tailor-made solution with their banker. This was done by 2,836 households, bringing the total number of deferrals to 10,441 since the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2022.
In short, under 1% of households with a mortgage – 3,066,796 households in January 2023 – have opted for this emergency solution.
The average amount of these deferrals is about €468 per month.
