New Flemish budget: what the savings will cost you
The Flemish government has unveiled a budget that saves nearly 2 billion euros in 2027 and up to 3.1 billion euros by 2029, and a new interactive tool lets residents calculate what it means for their own finances. According to VRT NWS, the calculator focuses on four measures that hit households directly: buying a home, having a child, studying longer and paying a household helper.
The deal, reached after a bruising negotiation that forced the rare postponement of the September Declaration, was presented by Minister-President Matthias Diependaele (N-VA) on 30 September. His three-party coalition of N-VA, Vooruit and CD&V is aiming for the so-called “zwarte nul” — a budget balanced to zero over three years. Diependaele called the scale of the exercise “unseen for a Flemish government.”
What changes for households
The single biggest hit for many families is the rise in registration duties. VRT NWS reported that the tax paid on buying a home will go back up from 2 to 3 percent — and now applies to all homes, not only those above 500,000 euros as originally planned. It only affects buyers who will live in the property themselves and own no other home.
The calculator illustrates the difference plainly: a 350,000-euro home now incurs 10,500 euros in registration duties, compared with 7,000 euros before — an extra 3,500 euros. The average Flemish house cost 394,209 euros in 2026 and an apartment 298,860 euros. When the measure takes effect is still unclear; the date of the sales agreement, or compromis, is expected to be the reference point.
Parents face a second squeeze. The one-off birth premium of 1,310.75 euros will be paid only for a first child, so families with a second or later child receive no start amount. Twin first-borns still receive two premiums, and blended families get a “reset,” meaning a first child within a new relationship still qualifies.
The Groeipakket — the Flemish child benefit system — is also being trimmed. The age limit for benefits while studying falls from 25 to 23, affecting roughly 40,000 people in their twenties. Age allowances are frozen so they no longer rise as children get older, and the separate system that gave school-leavers 12 months of benefit disappears. The base amount and its indexation are untouched, and children born before 2019 remain under the old rules.
Households that pay for help at home will feel the change from 1 January 2027. The price of service cheques rises from 10 to 12 euros for the first 175 cheques a year, then 13 euros each from the 176th. The annual cap is cut to 300 cheques per address, with anything above that charged at market rates. Single-parent families and people with disabilities retain an exception: up to 2,000 cheques a year at 12 euros. The government has said stockpiling cheques at the old rates will not be possible.
Finally, the planned reduction in inheritance tax for small and medium inheritances has been postponed until 2029.
Beyond the household wallet
The savings reach well past families. Businesses lose support for refining and petrochemical companies, the KMO-portefeuille for SME training is scrapped, and Flemish training leave is being reshaped into a single “Flemish learning credit.” Within government, 750 million euros is being cut from the apparatus — about 180 million of it from staffing — and Flemish civil servants may lose two paid public holidays, All Souls’ Day and King’s Day, though that still has to be negotiated with unions. More than 500 million euros in subsidies are being trimmed, including culture, with 47 million euros cut from that sector alone.
The budget also touches the wider civic and academic landscape: De Lijn’s promised 50 million euros is halved, VRT must find about 10 million euros in extra savings, and 35 million euros is being cut from scientific research funding.
The local level is bracing for its own share. Flemish cities and municipalities lose from a tempered Gemeentefonds, saving the region roughly 240 million euros. VRT NWS reported that Mechelen alone stands to lose 17 million euros. Its mayor, Bart Somers, did not mince words: “This shows contempt for local government, in a very brutal way,” he said, warning that municipalities will have to cut investment, reduce services or raise new revenue.
A budget, but also a debate about vision
Even before the fine print was read, the budget drew fire over what it does not contain. The government’s emphasis on the “zwarte nul” — borrowed from Germany’s balanced-budget rule — has been questioned by economists. Professor of Public Economics Willem Sas warned that a fixation on balance risks becoming a “fetish.” “Investments are your black zero of the future,” he told VRT NWS, arguing that a government is not a household and that its spending shapes its own future tax revenues. “That is why you must develop a global vision instead of an accountant’s mentality.”
The political reaction was swift and divided. Opposition parties questioned the speed of the deal. Vlaams Belang faction leader Chris Janssens asked who could believe a coherent policy could emerge from a budget “puzzled together in a weekend,” while party chairman Tom Van Grieken called N-VA’s approach to saving “on the next generation” a “strange line of reasoning.” Within the coalition, Vooruit’s Melissa Depraetere conceded on the registration-duty rise: “We would rather not have done that… but then the budget would have gone off the rails. Then you have to intervene.” CD&V’s Jo Brouns framed the exercise as protecting future generations from today’s debts.
Civil society weighed in from every direction. Building federation Bouwunie lamented the flip-flop on registration duties and asked what certainty buyers still have. SME groups Unizo and NSZ slammed the scrapping of the KMO-portefeuille. Netwerk tegen Armoede warned that vulnerable families are “left out in the cold,” while Ferm said the savings shift responsibility onto families, carers and volunteers — disproportionately onto women. Relief came, at least, from Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen, which welcomed the fact that education escaped direct additional cuts.
What to watch next
The budget table is being released piece by piece, and VRT NWS has said its overview will be supplemented in the coming period. Several elements remain unsettled: exactly when the higher registration duties take effect, whether civil servants will actually lose the two holidays, and how the promised inheritance-tax relief will ultimately be shaped.
The full substantive budget debate in the Flemish Parliament is scheduled for Friday, 2 October, giving opposition parties their first real chance to test the figures. Beyond the chamber, unions ABVV and ACV have called a demonstration on 9 October as a “first clear warning” to the federal government — a sign that the fiscal squeeze playing out across Belgium’s governments is far from over. For Flemish residents, the immediate question is simpler: the calculator is live, and the costs are personal.