Buy
Published on 20 October 20265 min read
Making an offer on a house in Belgium
The Immolytics editorial team
An offer on a house only becomes binding when the seller accepts your proposal and you both sign a sale agreement. An offer on its own, spoken or sent by email, commits nobody. Below you read how to put an offer together, which conditions belong in it, and when you are really tied to it.
When does an offer on a house become binding?
An offer becomes binding once seller and buyer agree on the price and on the essential conditions, and record that agreement in a signed sale agreement, the compromis de vente (verkoopcompromis). Until that moment your offer stays a proposal that the seller can set aside.
A resale in Belgium usually runs in three steps: the viewing, the offer with the negotiation, and the sale agreement prepared at the notary. That last step is what locks the sale. An estate agent can forward your offer and mediate, but only the owner decides whether to accept.
So be careful with what you put on paper. An accepted offer that contains every essential element can already create obligations, before the actual deed is signed. What a document you sign really means depends on its wording. Ask your notary to read it before you sign, even when the agent says it is a standard form.
How do you make an offer that gets taken seriously?
You make an offer by naming one clear amount, together with the deadline by which you want to sign and the conditions under which you buy. A vague proposal without a deadline or conditions is rarely treated seriously.
An offer that works is short and complete:
- decide your absolute maximum beforehand and stick to it during the negotiation;
- ask for the documents that describe the property, such as the urban planning information and the energy performance certificate;
- put the amount, the deadline, the conditions and both parties' names on a single page;
- send it to the owner or the agent and ask for confirmation of receipt;
- have your bank check beforehand whether the financing is realistic.
The house offer tool helps you line those elements up before you send anything. The more complete your proposal, the less room the seller has to treat it as non-committal.
What belongs in your offer: conditions and documents
Your offer contains at least the amount, a validity period, the suspensive conditions and the arrangements for the deed. Without a suspensive condition for your financing you can be tied to a purchase that your bank will not follow.
Write that condition in concrete terms: within which period you want a credit offer, and what happens if it does not come through. A seller accepts a condition that is clear and limited more easily than one that stays open for months. If you first need to sell your own home, say so straight away; many owners see that as a risk and prefer a buyer who is ready.
On energy, the rules differ per region. In Wallonia the energy performance certificate (PEB) is required for the sale and the letting of a dwelling, and no renovation deadline follows from it. In Flanders a sale can trigger a renovation obligation, and that applies there only, so not in Brussels or Wallonia. Brussels works with performance targets per dwelling, and a sale there does not trigger a renovation obligation. Check what applies in your region before you draft an offer, and keep the certificates your region requires with the documents.
What if there are several bidders, or the seller makes a counter-offer?
With several bidders the seller puts the proposals side by side and decides himself; the highest amount does not automatically win. When you receive a counter-offer, you are in fact negotiating further on the same sale.
Accepting a counter-offer means you make a new agreement, often with different conditions from your own proposal. So read not only the new amount but also the date of the deed, what stays in the property and who pays which costs. When several candidates bid on the same house, some sellers ask for a final offer within a short window. Do not let that rush you: a one-day deadline is no reason to drop your suspensive condition. Paying a little more and then failing to arrange the financing is a bad trade.
Ask as well whether other bids are already on the table and whether the owner has closed his own purchase. If he sells in order to buy something else, the timing of his sale can matter, and some owners choose a formula such as selling a house with a lifetime annuity for that. If your offer is refused there is no agreement and you can start again. Keep all communication in writing.
Where do you get your reference points for your offer?
You back up your offer with what similar homes actually fetched, not with the asking price of the neighbours. Statbel publishes official figures on property prices per municipality, and the notaries publish their own overview of the market.
Start with the municipality where you are looking. On this site you find the figures per municipality, for example for a house in Lommel, Waregem or Zonnebeke. If you are looking in a more expensive area, the figures for Roeselare and Halle help you place your offer. In the south of the country the pages for Dinant and Spa give a picture of the local market, and on the coast the overview for Nieuwpoort helps.
Always compare within the same municipality and the same type of dwelling. A detached house with a large garden next to a terraced house teaches you nothing about your offer. Use the figures as a starting point, add your own assessment of the state of the property, and note down why you find a given amount defensible. You need that argument when the seller makes a counter-offer.
Frequently asked questions
Is an offer on a house binding straight away?
No. An offer is not binding in itself; it becomes binding only when the seller accepts your proposal and you both sign that agreement in a sale agreement. Have the text read by your notary before you sign.
Can I still withdraw my offer?
As long as the seller has not accepted your offer, nothing stops you from withdrawing it, which is why you should put a validity period in your proposal. After a signed sale agreement, what that document says applies.
Do I have to make the highest offer to buy a house?
No. The seller does not automatically choose the highest amount. Certainty about the financing and a workable date for the deed often weigh as heavily as a slightly higher amount.
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