Belgian Coastal Apartment Prices Rise 6.5% as Sales Rebound

The Belgian coastal property market is recovering from a multi-year slump, with apartment sales rising 8.1% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, while prices climbed sharply. The median price of a coastal apartment reached 272,000 euros, up 6.7% year-on-year, according to the Kustbarometer (Coast Barometer) published on 10 September by Fednot, the federation of Belgian notaries.

Seafront, or dike, apartments rose 4.7% to a median of 335,000 euros. The overall trend extends beyond apartments: sales of houses and apartments along the coast rose 8% in the first half of the year, even as the property market in the rest of Flanders contracted slightly by 0.8%, as VRT NWS reported.

A Market Back to Cruising Speed

The recovery follows several difficult years. The coastal market had boomed during the 2020-2021 pandemic years, when a “real-estate tsunami” of buyers snapped up second homes. That was followed by a sharp correction, with first-half declines of roughly 15%, 23% and 6% in successive years, according to KW.be. Sales began rising again in 2025, and the trend consolidated this year.

“Since last year we have seen more transactions again, and that downturn has clearly been worked through,” said Bart van Opstal, spokesperson for the notary federation. “Now we are returning to a more normal property level at the coast.”

Van Opstal attributed the renewed appeal partly to the coast’s practical advantages. “Our coast is once again extra popular with property buyers,” he said. “The region has plenty of assets anyway: it is nearby, easily accessible and less exposed to extreme heat than destinations further from home.”

Where Sales and Prices Moved Most

The increase in transaction volume was spread across all coastal municipalities, according to BATIBOUW. Koksijde recorded the strongest rise, at 17.1%, followed by Middelkerke (+15.5%), Blankenberge (+10.2%) and De Panne (+9.5%).

Price developments, however, were far from uniform. A coastal apartment cost a median of 187,000 euros in Westende, the cheapest location, compared with 620,000 euros in Knokke. The divergence also shows up in year-on-year price changes, which ranged from a 6.9% decline in Heist to a 20.5% increase in De Panne.

“The coastal property market was also quite heterogeneous in the past half-year,” Van Opstal said. “The price of a coastal apartment varied from 187,000 euros in Westende to 620,000 euros in Knokke. Price trends also diverged widely: from -6.9% in Heist to +20.5% in De Panne.”

At the top end, a dike apartment in Knokke had a median price of 1.5 million euros in the first half of 2026, up 25% on the 2025 annual price. De Panne offered the cheapest seafront option at 260,000 euros, though that figure was still up 13% year-on-year.

Established Buyers, Flemish Demand

The coastal market remains overwhelmingly Flemish and skewed toward older buyers. Some 85.1% of buyers came from Flanders, 9.3% from Wallonia, 3% from Brussels and 2.6% from abroad. Most buyers do not live on the coast: only 15.4% came from a coastal municipality, while 84.6% came from elsewhere. West Flanders supplied the largest share of buyers (26.5%), followed by East Flanders (22.7%), Flemish Brabant (16.2%) and Antwerp (15.6%).

The average buyer was 51 years old. Buyers aged 51 to 60 accounted for 26% of transactions, and those aged 61 or older for 29%. Younger buyers were markedly less present: 18- to 30-year-olds made up 9%, and 31- to 40-year-olds 17%. Single buyers accounted for 35.3% of purchases, two buyers for 48.6% and three or more for 16.1%.

New-build apartments represented just 11% of the market, with a median price of 418,220 euros, well above the 255,000 euros median for existing apartments.

What’s Next

The figures point to a coastal market that has absorbed the post-pandemic correction and is edging back toward normal conditions. But notaries caution that half-year figures are not directly comparable to full-year averages, since more and, typically, more expensive apartments tend to sell in the second half of the year. The wide price spread between municipalities such as Westende and Knokke also suggests that the recovery will continue at different speeds along the coast, with prime locations pulling ahead of the rest.