Can you reclaim your registration duties when reselling?

Have you recently bought a property and would now like to resell it? Can you obtain a refund of the registration duties you paid?
A closer look at the three regions!

First of all, remember that throughout Belgium, two rules must be met to qualify for reimbursement of the costs incurred:
– the sale must take place within two years. This period is calculated from deed to deed: between the authentic deed of purchase and the authentic deed of sale.
– the selling price must be at least as high as the property’s purchase price to receive the full refund.

In Flanders:

In this region, the refund amounts to 60% of the registration duties paid on purchase, provided that the standard rate (10%) was applied.
Please note that you will not receive this refund automatically (even if you meet the conditions!). You will need to apply for it or ask your notary to do so.
Another piece of good news is that this refund can be combined with portability. In practical terms, this means that if you buy a new property before or after reselling the old one, you can deduct the remaining registration duties that were not refunded.

In Wallonia:

The 60% refund also applies in this region.
Please note that if the property was purchased at the reduced rate, the additional duties payable as a result of losing the reduced rate will be deducted from the refund.

In Brussels:

In this region, only 36% of the registration duties can be refunded.