On 9 April 2016, the federal government reached an agreement on additional budgetary and recovery measures following the 2016 budgetary control exercise. It has been confirmed that measures will be taken to make the Belgian real estate market more attractive for foreign investors (as further explained in the parliamentary procedures leading to the Tax Shift Act dated 26 December 2015):
- The creation of a new real estate investment fund (“FIIS” – “fonds d’investissement immobilier spécialisé” / “GVBF” – “gespecialiseerd vastgoedbeleggingsfonds”) has been confirmed. This fund will create a non-quoted real estate investment platform dedicated to institutional investors. The tax regime would be similar to the one of the existing real estate investment trusts (“SIR” – “sociétés immobilières réglementées”/”GVV” – “geregementeerde vastgoedvennootschappen”).
- It is also confirmed that there will be changes to the current regime of the SIRs/GVVs.
At this time, only the basic principles of the new measures have been agreed whilst the details are not yet clear and are still subject to change. The measures will now have to be translated into legislative texts.
If you have any questions, please contact your regular PwC contact.
