Mar 9, 2023

Press Release: Matexi and Realo increase insight into Belgian real estate market with launch of Nieuwbouwbarometer

Waregem/Ghent, March 9, 2023 - Neighborhood developer Matexi and real estate data platform Realo launch an important addition to the current landscape of indicators on the Belgian real estate market with the New Build Barometer. Thanks to an academically validated method applied to a broad and representative sample of the Belgian new build market, the New-Build Barometer allows for quickly and accurately detecting new trends in this specific segment, which is currently insufficiently covered by existing indicators.

Although there are already several barometers trying to map the evolution of the Belgian real estate market, none of these indicators have so far succeeded in capturing the increasingly important new construction market in our country. This is more important than ever. The energy crisis has led to a significant increase in demand for new energy-efficient homes. This is increasingly leading to a two-speed real estate market, where energy-efficient (new construction) homes are rising in price faster than homes with high energy costs. This prompted Matexi, the market leader in the Belgian new-build market, and the leading real estate data platform Realo, to combine their unique expertise in the New-Build Barometer.

The New-Build Barometer stands out in two ways from the existing landscape of real estate data. Firstly, through the data itself, which is objectively collected by Realo and consists of a combination of open data from the government and other online sources, as well as online real estate listings collected between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2022, filtered only for new-builds. This yields a substantial and representative sample for the entire Belgian market. Secondly, there is the way in which this data is analysed, which is through the so-called "hedonic price method", an academic and independently validated method that allows for more accurate monitoring of the real price evolutions for houses and apartments on the new construction market.

As a benchmark, Matexi and Realo have already made an initial analysis of the situation in the new-build market for the period 2017-2022. Some conclusions:

"As a market leader in the Belgian new-build market, Matexi is at the forefront of a crucial segment to guide the Belgian real estate market towards a sustainable, energy-efficient, and affordable future," says Olivier Lambrecht, CEO of Matexi. "To achieve this, it is crucial to be able to closely monitor the developments within that new-build segment. With the New-Build Barometer, which does so in an objective and academically validated manner, we are meeting that important need."

"From the start of Realo, it has always been our goal to bring more transparency and objective insights to the Belgian real estate market. Today, we support both real estate professionals and consumers with our real estate data platform, which is developed based on the most complete, current, and local public data regarding real estate in Belgium. We are therefore very happy to be able to offer reliable insights into the Belgian new-build market together with Matexi, a segment that has remained underexposed until now," adds Vincent Verlee, CEO of Realo.

Matexi and Realo are convinced that the New-Build Barometer is an essential addition to the current landscape of data on the Belgian real estate market, and will publish updates on a quarterly basis starting today.

Read all information from the New Build Barometer on the website.

Mar 9, 2023