Over 90% of Airbnb rental properties on offer in the Belgian capital do not conform with local laws and are being let illegally, according to a new analysis by news platform Bruzz.
The investigation compared three datasets. The official list of Brussels rentals, obtained through a freedom of information request, of 546 accommodations approved by Brussels Economy and Employment (BEW), and a list compiled by the Inside Airbnb watchdog, from which Bruzz took only active, “entire homes”, including aparthotels, furnished holiday homes, studios, flats, and “urban guesthouses.”
Of 3,637 active listings, 2,788 are entire homes, and only 267 are on the list of recognised accommodations, meaning less than 10% comply with local laws.
Commentators note that the rules are not easy to follow, requiring would-be landlords to go through at least eight different bureaucratic processes, including providing proof of identity, a clean background check, a liability insurance certificate, fire safety documentation, and the correct urban planning permission, as well as a property tax notice, and registration with the regional tax office within 31 days to ensure payment of a regional nightly tax of up to five euros.
The Brussels regulations are considered so complex that they have come under fire from the European Court of Justice, which criticised their lack of transparency, clarity, and objectivity. Boris Dilliès, President of the Brussels Capital region, has vowed to reform the system, but his intention is to make it harder, not easier, for people to earn a bit of money on the side through Airbnb. “The rules for renting out entire homes will become stricter, because this competes with the housing supply and the hotel sector. More flexible rules will apply to the renting out of a room by a private individual,” he said.
Critics of the current system point out that a simple solution would be for Brussels Economy and Employment to make it mandatory for Airbnb to request official registration numbers from anyone making a rental available on the platform. This way of operating is already in place in cities like Barcelona and Berlin.
Meanwhile, the authorities have caught up with some owners who have ignored or fallen foul of the rules, often relying on citizen denunciations, municipal work, and tourists themselves to detect offenders. In 2025, 38 rentals were ordered to cease their activities, and over 2,000 property owners were targeted for unpaid taxes. Anyone refusing to comply with shutdown orders risks a penalty of €1,000 at least per unit, on top of a full year’s income tax that assumes full occupation of the property in question.
Still, the Belgian capital seems to be lagging behind other jurisdictions, such as Spain, where tens of thousands of properties have been wiped from rental sites, following massive fines for the platforms.
