Me and my fellow (post-)millennials are branded as lazy and narcistic, staring at the blue light of our devices all day. But has anyone considered we entered a job market that was in shambles, have to fear the rise of the robots, and push around bullshit just to get around? Furthermore, it seems selling our organs is the only plausible way to afford renting a house. And once you think you’re ready to buy a house, reality hits you with blunt axe in the face. This is the story of Ghent-rification: or how Ghent traded affordable housing for perfect coffee and Malbec wine.
According to Lonely Planet, Ghent is Belgium’s best kept secret. It is a popular university city with some picturesque medieval scenery, countless bars, a castle, quiet rivers and one of the largest city festivals in the world. Under the liberal-social-democratic(-green) local government, the city shed it’s post-industrial looks and became a popular destination for both Belgian and international tourists. The city pioneered pedestrian zones and the complete city center has now been car-free for over a year. Its University is now in the top 100 universities of the world and its mayor almost became best mayor of the world.
But for many, living inside the city has become out of reach as property prices dance to the drum of gentrification. Local merchants and dark pubs are making way for coffee bars, wineries and the ‘holy food market‘. Cheap flats and old houses are being renovated and sold again on the market. To sum up: the transformation of the city has had a huge impact on housing prices1. Between 2010 and 2016 the mean price of properties (excluding land) sold in the city rose from 210.000 euro to 265.000 euro 2.
Strikingly, prices of flats are more or less the same as house prices. Both have seen their prices rise from 200.000 to more than 250.000. One explanation that mean prices for flats are the same as mean prices for houses is that flats are mostly found in the city center while houses are mainly found in the periphery. At first glance, it appears that mansion (villa’s, land houses and bungalows) prices appear to be more stable over time.
When we compare this to other Belgian cities, we can see that these changes are largely in line with Brussels and Antwerp. Both Luik and Charleroi have seen a larger price increase for mansions (compared to flats and houses). A plausible explanation is that both cities are in Wallonia, have larger suburbs and more bungalows.
To conclude: G(h)entrification is not solely a problem of Ghent. Many cities in Europe (and around the world) have seen severe price hikes over the past decades. Coffee and wine bars, Deliveroo kebab, book clubs, personal trainers and high rents are the new urban standard. However, Ghent has seen alarming price increases in flats, perhaps related to the growing influx of students. Because flats are on average cheaper than houses, this issue is mainly troublesome for low-income (one-member) families. The question is how a progressive government has let it come so far over the past 20 years. But maybe more important, how will the next legislation tackle this issue?
- Numbers by Statbel. All prices are nominal. ↩
- The amount of transactions exploded in 2014 because of the modification of housing subsidies in 2015. ↩
- If you’re unfamiliar with percentiles, just imagine this. You get the price of p10 when you rank all transactions in a year from low to high and stop counting when you counted 10% of all transactions. Then you take a look at the price of the transaction where you stopped counting. Similarly, you can get the price of p90 when you rank all transactions again and stop counting when you counted 90% of all transactions. ↩