Rents will also be indexed. This therefore concerns the tenants, who will have to pay more money for accommodation, while the owners will pass on the costs of building maintenance, particularly renovation, to the tenants. A situation that worries tenants and politicians, who therefore advocate for a form of limitation of this indexation.
This is the case of the PS, which evokes a variable indexation according to the PEB of the buildings. “We have to do it in relation to energy sieves. If work is really done to improve the energy performance of a home, that’s very good. The objective is to encourage owners to put their homes in compliance. There is a collective effort to be made. This involves improving the energy performance of housing. Tenants who are forced to live in poorly insulated or energy-intensive housing, it is a double penalty. “increase in the price of energy and the indexation of rents. We must be able to do that”, says Pierre-Yves Dermagne, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy and Labour.
A proposal strongly criticized by the owners’ union, which categorically refuses any modification of the index. “We are opposed to any limitation or blocking of rent indexation”, confirms Eric Mathay, President of the owners’ union. For him, it doesn’t make sense. “We were surprised, even shocked, to hear the Secretary of State for Housing say that landlords who rent were going to get richer with indexation. This is totally untrue. When you have to do work in real estate, the cost is significantly higher than the evolution of inflation”he says.
For him, the PEB criterion should be rejected out of hand. “The EPB certificate is a fine example of Belgian surrealism, because this material has been regionalized. For an apartment with the same characteristics, we have Walloon, Brussels and Flemish legislation. An apartment that would have an annual consumption of 276 kwh per square meter: in Brussels, it’s an F, in Wallonia in D and in Flanders in C. Do you find that normal? he wonders.
On the MR side, we recommend, for example, an indicative grid, according to energy performance, to give indexations for information only, without obligation. “It’s a regional competence, we have nothing to say about it”also specifies David Clarinva, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Middle Classes, the Self-Employed, SMEs, Agriculture, Institutional Reforms & Democratic Renewal.