2023-05-26 04:52:00
This is the recent report from the Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis, singled out by our colleagues from the Evening, which tells us: the capital region has 1,219,970 inhabitants, a figure that has been constantly rising for 25 years. It gained new inhabitants again: a little less than 2,700 heads joined the 19 municipalities.
But in the shadow of this positive balance, boosted by expatriates and refugees, a sub-figure is striking: 45,000 Brussels residents have, at the same time, moved to Wallonia or Flanders, in 2021. An exile which has always existed but which is now up 10%. And which had not been so massive for 35 years. This trend says something.
There are probably, in the lot, departures motivated by a host of factors (personal and professional aspirations, mobility, desire for less urban tranquility, cleanliness, feeling of insecurity, etc.). But there is one that jumps out at us: those who leave are mostly thirty-somethings, established in their professional life and young parents, therefore in search of a much more spacious, with garden. A commodity that has become unaffordable in the capital, especially since the triptych pandemic – economic crisis – rate hike. The Brussels property tax and its allowances (revised upwards) slows down part of the exodus, but not enough. It’s a bigger problem than it seems. Because if Brussels has always taken on a cosmopolitan character, forging its wealth, it still managed, even before the year 2000, to retain on its territory the young people of Brussels attached to their city and holding purchasing power. The same ones she pushes, in spite of herself and especially in spite of them, into the arms of neighboring Brabants today.
Slightly constrained exiles, who therefore leave their hometown with a heavy heart, but often find their happiness once settled in their new living environment, on the other hand. And come back, in finerarely in their capital of heart…
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