Your family is growing: renovate or move to a bigger home in Flanders
A baby on the way, children who each want their own room, a new blended family or a parent who comes to live with you: one day your home is too small. Then you choose between staying and renovating, or selling and moving to a bigger home. Here you read what each choice requires, what it costs and what you had best arrange first.
If you stay and renovate within the existing volume, since 1 March 2026 you usually no longer need an environmental permit (omgevingsvergunning) in Flanders, as long as the number of dwellings stays the same; an extension does require one (Departement Omgeving). If you buy a bigger home as your sole owner-occupied home, you pay % registration duty instead of 1 %, on condition that you sell your current home within 2 years after the purchase deed, or within 3 years if you commit to an energy renovation (Vlaamse Belastingdienst, checked on 28 October 2026). Start with your budget: what your current home is worth and what your bank is willing to lend.
What is your home worth?
First see what your home is worth. Then start preparing early and without obligation: free, for as long as you like.
In 2025, almost 62,300 children were born in the Flemish Region (Statistiek Vlaanderen, July 2026). For many families, sooner or later the same question comes up: is there still enough room here, or do we look for something bigger?
There is no right choice, only one that fits your situation. Set these questions side by side:
Space: can your home gain a room, within the existing volume or with an extension, and does your plot allow it?
Budget: what does a renovation cost, compared with the difference between your sale price and the price of a bigger home, with the costs on both sides included?
Time: a renovation runs while you live there, a move requires a sale and a purchase that are aligned with each other.
Surroundings: school, childcare, work and family. Whoever likes to stay in the neighbourhood often looks at renovating first.
Future: is another child coming, or is a parent going to live with you? What is enough now may be too cramped again in five years.
Part 2
What may you renovate without an environmental permit?
Since 1 March 2026, all interior renovations in Flanders are exempt from an environmental permit (omgevingsvergunning), on condition that the number of dwellings in the building stays the same (Departement Omgeving, the Flemish environment department). Adding a room within the existing volume, such as converting an attic or moving a wall, is therefore usually possible without a permit.
If the works affect the stability of the building, for example because a load-bearing wall has to go, from 5 September 2026 the exemption only applies if you appoint an architect (Departement Omgeving).
If you want to extend your home, as a rule you need an environmental permit. Since 1 March 2026 that also applies to an attached conservatory and to an outbuilding against the home. Insulation of facades and roofs up to 26 centimetres is exempt, as long as you do not cross the building line (Departement Omgeving).
Local rules and subdivision regulations can be stricter. Check your plans on vlaanderen.be/omgevingsvergunning and ask your municipality what is possible on your plot. In Brussels and Wallonia other rules apply.
Part 3
What does renovating cost, and how do you finance it?
On renovation works to your home, a reduced VAT rate of % can apply under certain conditions. For heating installations on fossil fuel the reduced rate no longer applies (FOD Financiën, the federal tax authority). Your contractor checks whether your works qualify.
For energy-saving works there are Flemish grants and loans. The Flemish government mentions among others Mijn VerbouwPremie, the EPC label grant, Mijn VerbouwLening and the renovation loan with interest subsidy (Vlaamse overheid). Conditions and amounts can depend on your income and change regularly, so check them at the moment you apply.
You pay for a renovation with savings, a renovation loan or a mortgage loan. Wikifin recommends that what you repay each month for your home does not exceed a third of your income, after deducting your other loans (Wikifin, February 2026). That rule of thumb also applies if you buy.
Part 4
Can a parent come to live with you?
Yes. With care housing (zorgwonen) you set up in or next to your home a smaller, subordinate dwelling unit for at most 2 people, of whom at least one is 65 or older or needs care (Departement Omgeving). The home and the care unit have the same owner.
Whoever is going to live there must move in within 2 years after the notification, and you also report the end of the care housing. If you extend the home for it, you do need a permit. How the registration at the address works, you ask your municipality (Departement Omgeving).
In many cases a notification via the Omgevingsloket, the online permit portal, is enough, instead of an environmental permit:
In your existing home: the care unit forms one whole with the home and takes up at most a third of the gross floor area.
In an existing outbuilding: at most 50 m², connected to the utilities and the drainage of the main home.
In a movable unit in the garden: at most 50 m² and 3.5 metres high, within 30 metres of the home, for a maximum of 3 years with one extension of 3 years, and removed within 3 months after the care stops.
Part 5
What about your homes if you form a new blended family?
If you each bring a home, you choose which one you go to live in, or you both sell and buy something bigger together. If you buy together, the reduced rate of % is assessed per buyer: whoever is still full owner of another home commits to selling it within 2 years after the deed (Vlaamse Belastingdienst, the Flemish Tax Administration).
Letting a home instead of selling it therefore does not go together with the reduced rate for whoever remains full owner of it. Lease agreements from 2019 fall under the Flemish Residential Lease Decree.
After a marriage or a legal cohabitation you decide on the family home together, even if only one of you is owner. De facto cohabitants do not have that protection (notaris.be).
Discuss with the notary how you become owners and for which share. Certainly with children from a previous relationship, that choice later helps determine who gets what.
Part 6
What does it cost to move to a bigger home?
On the buying side you pay registration duty, also called sales duty (verkooprecht). For the sole owner-occupied home that is % in Flanders since 1 January 2025, compared with the standard rate of 1 % (Vlaamse Belastingdienst). You may then no longer be full owner of another home or building plot, or you sell your current home within 2 years after the deed of your new home. If you commit to an energy renovation or demolition and reconstruction, you have 3 years.
If you do not meet that deadline, you pay the difference with 1 % on top, plus a tax increase of 2 % on that difference. You also register at the new address within 3 years after the deed and, for sale agreements from 2026, remain registered there without interruption for at least 1 year (Vlaamse Belastingdienst).
An example from 2026 for a home of € 50,000: at % you pay € ,000 registration duty, at 1 % that would be € 4,000. If you do not sell your previous home in time, you pay € 5,000 on top, plus € ,000 tax increase.
On top of that come the fee of the notary, administrative costs, VAT and expenses to third parties. The fee is fixed in a statutory scale, the same for every notary. According to an example from the notarial profession (July 2025), buying a family home of € 50,000 in Flanders costs about € ,370 in total, of which € ,000 registration duty (notaris.be).
If you borrow, you also pay the costs of the loan deed, such as registration and mortgage duties on the amount of the mortgage and the fee (notaris.be). The calculators on notaris.be give an estimate for your amounts.
If your new home is older and has label E or F, you have to renovate it to at least label D within 6 years after the deed (Vlaamse overheid, the Flemish government). Include those works in your budget.
From 1 January 2027 the Flemish Government wants to raise the rate to %: announced, not yet decided. According to the Vlaamse Belastingdienst the date of the sale agreement would count, subject to the decree (position of 1 October 2026). On € 50,000 that is € 3,500 instead of € ,000. In Brussels and Wallonia other rules apply.
Part 7
Buy first or sell first?
Whoever moves to a bigger home almost always buys and sells at the same time. Selling first gives certainty about your budget, buying first about your next home. If you buy first, a bridging loan covers the time until the sale: you pay interest on the full amount and repay the capital in one go (Wikifin, February 2026).
If you buy while you still have to sell, a suspensive condition in the sale agreement (compromis) can protect you, such as the condition that you obtain a loan (the notaries’ model sale agreement). You agree such a condition with the seller, before you sign.
If you are still looking, in the showroom on hoobler.be you find homes that owners sell directly, and a saved search keeps you informed by e-mail. The full consideration you read in the guide on buying first or selling first.
Part 8
What do you best arrange first?
Start with what determines your decision and with what takes longest. Then you do not have to rush anything when you find the right house or when the contractor can start.
Your budget: ask your bank how much you can borrow, and what it proposes if you buy first and sell later.
The value of your current home: a free valuation based on the address gives you a first starting point, not an official valuation.
The possibilities of your plot: the planning information and the regional zoning plan (gewestplan) show what is possible, for yourself and for a later buyer.
Your certificates: you need the EPC (energy performance certificate) before you put the home up for sale, the asbestos certificate must be ready at the sale agreement for a home from before 2001, and you apply for a soil certificate before the sale agreement. It arrives within 14 calendar days, or within 60 if OVAM, the Flemish waste and soil agency, already has data on the land (Vlaamse overheid, OVAM).
Your dossier: in a free sale dossier at Hoobler, with an account via itsme, the land registry data, the planning information and the regional zoning plan are retrieved, and you see which certificates your home still needs. EPC, asbestos certificate and electrical inspection you order there via partner De Immowinkel, at their rate.
Your address: after the move you report your change of address within 8 working days at your new municipality (Vlaamse overheid).
Frequently asked questions
Answered briefly.
How much time do you have to sell your house if you move to a bigger home?
For % registration duty on your new sole owner-occupied home in Flanders you sell your previous home within 2 years after the deed, or within 3 years if you commit to an energy renovation or demolition and reconstruction (Vlaamse Belastingdienst). If that fails, you pay the difference with 1 % on top, plus 2 % tax increase.
Do you need a permit to add a child’s bedroom?
Within the existing volume usually not: interior renovations in Flanders have been exempt since 1 March 2026 as long as the number of dwellings stays the same. If you affect the stability, from 5 September 2026 you need an architect. An extension does require an environmental permit (Departement Omgeving).
May your parent come to live with you in a separate dwelling unit?
Yes, with care housing (zorgwonen): a smaller dwelling unit for at most 2 people, of whom at least one is 65 or older or needs care. In the existing home, in an existing outbuilding or in a movable unit, a notification is enough under conditions (Departement Omgeving).
Do you get % registration duty if you buy together with your new partner?
The reduced rate is assessed per buyer (Vlaamse Belastingdienst). Whoever is still full owner of another home only gets it if they commit to selling it within 2 years after the deed.
Will the registration duty become % in 2027?
That has been announced, not yet decided: there is no decree yet (Vlaamse Belastingdienst, checked on 28 October 2026). According to the Vlaamse Belastingdienst a sale agreement from before 1 January 2027 would still get %, subject to the decree.
Request a free valuation based on the address. That way you know roughly what your current home will fetch, before you talk to your bank or call an architect.