82% of the buildings in Eterbeek date back to before the end of the Second World War! So, in architecture, dating doesn't necessarily mean you've aged. Many of our apartments and houses are still in great shape. However, there is still a risk that some of them may not have undergone the renovations needed to survive the passage of time without falling into disrepair.

Figures for 2024 from the Institut Bruxellois de Statistique et d'Analyse (IBSA) show that our municipality is home to 28,076 households, 5% of whom are on the waiting list for social housing. Unfortunately, this list is very long, and the average time taken to obtain housing is between 10 and 20 years. This means that there are 1,261 households in Etrebeek whose daily lives are undermined by the proportion of their income taken up by housing costs. The solution is often to fall back on flats with increasingly modest rents.

 The market has an unfortunate tendency to take advantage of this state of need, and we are witnessing a deterioration in the quality of rented accommodation, sometimes leading to the notorious phenomenon of "sleep merchants" who do not hesitate to over-occupy properties in their possession, in contravention of safety standards and with no concern for the dilapidated state of the premises.  

In short, more than 1,000 households are struggling to find decent housing, and the average building stock is older than in the Brussels region. The risk of poor housing is therefore higher than you might imagine in Etterbeek.

 The local authority is not inactive and issues reprimands to negligent landlords when problematic situations are brought to its attention, which can go as far as an obligation to cease renting in the event of manifest insalubrity, with the households being rehoused.

However, it does not yet have a proactive tool for identifying and supporting situations that need to be addressed in order to halt the spiral of poor housing. Other local authorities have already taken this step: Schaerbeek, Anderlecht and, more recently, Ixelles have set up a consultation platform bringing together all the front-line housing players to cross-reference information, establish suspicions of substandard housing and trigger inspection procedures. The aim of this collaboration is not only to sound the alarm, but also to better anticipate the rehousing of these families.  

 It's a dynamic that we'd like to put in place so that everyone in Etterbeek has a place where they can feel at home in complete dignity.