Belgium continues to perform strongly in terms of logistic and semi-industrial real estate. The excellent accessibility and the relatively cheap pricing keeps at the head of the list of top locations in logistic real estate. The National Airport in Zaventem, the Seaport of Antwerp and the most important highways have shaped the current lay-out of the industrial warehousing activity in Belgium.
2007 was an excellent year in terms of logistic and industrial occupation activity: over 1 million of floor space was transacted. The most popular location remains the triangle between Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels. The Belgian market is characterised by a low overall availability of good quality warehousing. While a lot of demand is focused towards customised solutions, speculative development is relatively well contained. Land is made available throughout the country to coincide with the continuous needs for expansion or improvement. For the coming three years, 1.3 million; of warehousing projects are in the pipeline.
The limited supply of land has supported a marginal rental appreciation in the traditional regions for logistic and light industrial activities. On the Antwerp-Brussels axis, prime rents range from 34 up to 48 euro/m². Rents in the upcoming and expanding zones have been observed stable. Here, rents are observed between 38 and 43 euro/m² for prime logistic warehouses. Rents for smaller floor areas can be higher, especially when located in dense urban areas.
A standard lease contract for industrial buildings is signed for 9 years with landlord or tenant or both having a break option every three years. This is generally called a 3-6-9 lease. There is no statutory basis for this pattern however, and parties are free to vary it. The lease terminates automatically after the 9 years, unless parties decide mutually to prolong the contract. Any lease exceeding nine years has to be passed as an act before a public notary. Unless agreed by both parties, nor the landlord, nor the tenant has the right to break the lease at an earlier date then mentioned in the contract.
Landlord's and Tenant's Obligations
Under the terms of the Code Civil, the landlord is responsible for the exterior of the property as well as replacement (but not maintenance) of communal technical parts such as lifts, boilers, air conditioning parts etc.The tenant is responsible for all normal wear and tear within the premises and for specific damage to the fittings and fabric. An initial schedule of condition and a final schedule of condition are drawn up and serve as the basis for calculating the tenant's indemnities.
Property taxation
Tenants are responsible for the proportional payment of property taxes. The property tax is paid on a proxy of the normal net average annual rental income of the premises. That proxy was last updated in 1975, and has been indexed since 1991. As a result, the revenu cadastral is generally inferior to the real rental income. Also the revenu cadastral of newly constructed buildings is calculated by using the last estimates of 1975 as a reference.
