The Housing Platform, which brings together a number of associations and trade unions including the CSC and the FGTB, rallied in Brussels on Friday to condemn the end of the measure limiting the indexation of rents for energy-inefficient housing.
The measure, which has been in force for a year, came to an end on 14 October, allowing landlords to index rents again.
At 13:00 on Friday, around 40 people, including members of the housing platform, gathered in Place Saint-Jean in Brussels. A placard read: “A dark Friday for housing”.
This measure, adopted on 14 October 2022 by the Brussels-Capital Region Government in the context of the energy crisis, aimed to limit for a period of one year the possibility of indexing the rent of energy-inefficient properties according to the Energy Performance of the building (EPB). The outright ban concerned homes with a G or F EPB, while those with an E EPB could be indexed, but only up to a limit of 50%.
End of hope
"We find the end of the indexation restriction sadly symbolic because it marks the exhaustion of our hopes to see the emergence of measures that would genuinely protect tenants. There have been a number of standard-setting projects in this area during this legislature (indicative rent scale, joint tenancy commission, reform of the lease ordinance, etc.), but they have often been abandoned or too largely emptied of their initial ambitions," said Romane Berns, a lawyer with FéBUL and member of the housing platform.
"At the very most, we hope that in view of the current cost of living, the partners in the majority will agree on a mechanism to prevent last year’s indexation from being caught up," she added. The platform is also calling for rent controls in Brussels, in particular a ban on indexation of energy slums, the creation of more social housing, and the effective implementation of the Joint Rental Commission.
Rent prices in Brussels rose by 20% between 2004 and 2018, excluding indexation, according to a survey conducted by the Observatoire des loyers. “For decades, there has been a complete disproportion between rent increases and salary increases. There is a total disconnection from market prices and the cost of living, with no framework outside social estate agencies and social housing”, lamented the FéBUL lawyer.
Despite an attempt by the Secretary of State for Housing, Nawal Ben Hamou (PS), to extend the indexation freeze, the Brussels government failed to reach a consensus and decided to end the measure as of 14 October 2023.
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However, on 29 September, the Brussels parliament was asked to give urgent consideration to two proposals for ordinances tabled by the PS and Ecolo to limit the potential effects of ending the freeze on indexation of rents for energy-intensive housing and commercial premises.
In the Brussels region, the ordinance introducing this correction factor is due to be voted on 13 October.
