Koksijde municipal council rejects proposals regarding secondary residents.

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One of the main objectives of the non-profit association TWERES, is to establish a dialogue and a constructive cooperation with local authorities.

TWERES was therefore very satisfied with the positive reaction of the Mayor of Bredene, Steve Vandenberghe, towards our association, indicating when we met on 18 September 2020: “together we can achieve much more”. The Mayor agreed to a participatory-formula at the level of the municipality, and supports a pilot project of TWERES to optimize cooperation with the local population.

At the initiative of the Mayor of Bredene, TWERES was also discussed at the Joint Consultative Meeting of Coastal Mayors of October 2020, where it was decided to invite a representation of TWERES to a subsequent Coastal Mayors’ meeting in order to give TWERES a forum to present itself.

On December 14, 2020, the Municipal Council of Koksijde – upon the initiative of Independent Municipal Councilor Ms. Dominique Gillet Wolter Hofmans – discussed an agenda item regarding second residents, asking specifically to vote upon two specific proposals: “(1) to have a listening ear for the voice of second residents with a view to initiate a constructive collaboration, and (2) to establish a permanent working group between the second residents and the municipal administration.”

Both proposals were unfortunately rejected by the Municipal Council. A video of the meeting is available on the website of the municipality (see point 21). One can also find a report of the meeting on the same website.

TWERES will actively pursue this matter, wishing in particular to discuss this further with the local authorities in Koksijde. To this end, President Marie-Anne Coninsx has addressed a letter including a request to meet in a near future, to the Mayor of Koksijde with copy to all municipal councilors.

New Association “TWERES” out of the starting blocks TWERES stands up for second-residents with respect and understanding for the interests of all

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The recently founded association VZW “TWERES” (“TWE”- two, “RES”- RESidents Secondaires) wants to give a strong voice to second residents in Belgium. The initiative originated during the corona lockdown. Contrary to some neighbouring countries and against the recommendation of health-experts, second-residents were forbidden to access and to stay at their second home during the lockdown. After this unsavoury period, TWERES wants to continue to look after the interests of the large group of second-residents in Belgium, addressing most divers concerns of different categories of second residents, which goes far beyond the protest in the context of the corona crisis. However, the association wants to do this with respect and understanding for the rights of permanent residents, short-term residents, day-tourists and all other interested parties.

More than a quarter of a million families and singles live in Belgium outside their domicile on a regular basis. This can be a mobile home, a chalet in a holiday park in Limburg, an apartment on the coast or a cottage in the Ardennes. Together they form a heterogeneous group of people from all categories of the population. Second-residents make a substantial social, economic and fiscal contribution to the local community of their second residence, while they have no say at all in the policy of that community.
The initiative to unite the second-residents in the non-profit organization TWERES came into being in May, during the exit from the lockdown. When the ban to stay at the second residence still remained in place even though shops and schools were already open, legal proceedings were started against the Belgian State. This had immediate effect. Even before the Council of State was able to hear the case, politicians woke up and pushed themselves in front of the cameras to announce that the ban would be lifted immediately. From that experience, second-residents learned that they are an influential group, provided they organize themselves.

This period also revealed that second-residents are confronted with several other problems. For example, many second-residents feel that they are disadvantaged fiscally by local authorities; owner-occupiers of mobile homes on campsites have many questions about their contracts with camping owners. Second-residents in apartment-buildings are often alone with their problems with regard to the property manager. Those who have a second home in Flanders, are very concerned that they will be disadvantaged by the announced new method of calculating the energy-tariffs that will apply as from 2022 onwards. These are just a few examples.

Chairwoman of TWERES, Marie-Anne Coninsx stresses: “The mission of TWERES goes far beyond the protest in the context of the corona crisis. It aims to respond to the concerns and interests of second-residents from all walks of life. We wish to do this with respect and understanding for the legitimate interests of all”.

Second residents ask for more participation in the community of their second home. At the same time TWERES also wants to get rid of the unjustified stigmatisation of second-residents. “The image that only a privileged class of the population has (cv: also non-owner second residents) a second home, does not correspond at all to reality,” says Coninsx.

Under the slogan “Standing up for second residents”, TWERES calls on all second residents throughout the country, to support the association and contribute to its development. One can become a member in no time via the website www.tweres.be where all information – such as mission, planned actions, statutes – is available.

For more information about TWERES, please contact us: Marie-Anne Coninsx : +32 497 91 42 72, e-mail: maconinsx@gmail.com or directly with the TWERES secretariat via +32 485 169 145, e-mail: info@tweres.be.
Website TWERES:www.tweres.be; Twitter: @twe_res.

Bio Marie-Anne Coninsx

Marie-Anne Coninsx comes from Limburg (Tongeren), with a second home in Koksijde on the Belgian coast. Marie-Anne has a legal background and is a former European diplomat. For the past 10 years she has been EU Ambassador to Mexico, to Canada and the first EU Ambassador for the Arctic. She studied law at Ghent University (B), and did postgraduate studies at the universities of Cambridge (UK) and CEU-Nancy (FR).

Twitter : @MarieAnnConinsx

Second residents in Belgium : how many are we actually with?

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As far as we know, nobody knows the number of second homes in Belgium. For the Flemish Region, the Study Service of the Flemish Government mapped out the number of second homes in the Flemish Region for the last time in 2016. The study distinguishes between second homes in private camping sites and holiday parks, and second homes in open residential zones (houses and apartments).

The authors of the study counted for the first category (second stays in campsites, etc.) in the whole of Flanders 53.262 second stays or (at that time) or 1.7% of all residences. The highest number of second homes in residential parks was of course found on the coast and more specifically in Middelkerke, De Haan and Bredene, where between 6.000 and 7.000 second homes of this type were counted. This was followed by Koksijde with more than 2.000 of these second residences. Nieuwpoort, Knokke-Heist and De Panne followed with between 700 and 735. Eight non-coastal municipalities also had between 700 and 1.000 second homes on holiday parks, namely Kasterlee, Lille, Berlare, Herselt and Lanaken, Bocholt, Stekene and Maaseik.

For the second category – second residences in ordinary buildings, i.e. houses and apartments – the authors counted (after numerous corrections, e.g. to exclude student rooms)161.647 second residences in absolute figures for the entire Flemish Region. At 18.000, Knokke-Heist had the highest number of second homes in ordinary buildings, i.e. houses or apartments. Also in Koksijde and Middelkerke the 2016 study counted about 12.000 “ordinary” second homes, in Ostend more than 10,000. In the other coastal municipalities their number fluctuated between 5.700 and 7.600. At that time Bredene was just out of the top fifteen with 1.056 second homes in ordinary buildings. In addition to the coast, the authors also discovered large absolute numbers of second homes in a few cities: Antwerp came top with almost 18.000; Ghent, Bruges, Kortrijk, Hasselt and Mechelen followed with between 2.400 and 6.000 second residences. The fact that these cities are on this list is partly due to the fact that people living in Antwerp or other Flemish cities register their domicile in Knokke-Heist or another coastal municipality (e.g. incited by the favourable local tax regime for “official” permanent residents).

For the complete study (in Dutch): click here. We do not know whether a similar study has ever been carried out for the Walloon or Brussels Capital Region.

Access to second homes in Germany during the corona lock-down

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The measures taken in Germany to combat the coronavirus were not, from the outset, aimed at a general ban on access to second homes. At the beginning of the pandemic, there were different rules for second homes depending on the Land. There were recommendations, and in some regions citizens who did not have their main residence in the Land of their second home were initially prohibited from crossing the Land border and visiting their second home.

This changed rapidly after the administrative courts in some Länder lifted or suspended the ban on the use of second homes. The courts found the ban on travelling to the second residence to be disproportionate and thus illegal. The governments of the Länder concerned responded by amending their regulations without delay.

Here are just a few examples:

  • Berlin/Brandenburg: following a decision of the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg in March, a spokesman for the Brandenburg Ministry of the Interior clearly stated: “Anyone who owns a holiday home or apartment in Brandenburg may, of course, use it themselves”.
  • Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a very touristy Land on the German Baltic Sea coast: after a ruling of the High Court of Greifswald on 9 April 2020, which lifted the travel ban for the local population, the state government decided on 17 April 2020 that anyone living in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania may visit any place there, including a second home on the coast and on the Baltic Sea islands.
  • Some Länder in Germany, such as Bavaria, also a Land with very attractive and popular tourist regions, as well as Saxony-Anhalt and North Rhine-Westphalia, have at no time forbidden the private use of second homes.

Conclusion: In Germany, during the corona crisis, second-home owners were not ultimately prevented from using their property, even if it was in another Land.

Lock-down and second stays in France: a different approach from the very strict ban in Belgium

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In the afternoon of Tuesday 17 March, France, like most other countries in Europe around the same period, went into lock-down. Only a few movements were allowed and only on the basis of a certificate. In the absence of proof, our French neighbours risked a fine of 135 euros. Contrary to what we saw in Belgium, spending the lock-down in a second stay was not forbidden. People who were in their second residence on 17 March at noon were allowed to stay there.

However, it was absolutely forbidden to shuttle back and forth between the second residence and the main residence. As in Belgium, the presence of the owners in their second residence caused some commotion among part of the local population. In an interview with Paris-Match anthropologist Jean-Didier Urbain gave some interesting comments on what happened in France.

Click here to read the interview (in French).

How do I find a trustworthy syndic?

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Many second homes, especially on the Belgian Coast, are apartments in apartment buildings. Owners of these apartments – permanent residents, non-permanent residents and landlords – are then in a relationship of forced co-ownership and together form an association of co-owners.

More than once, the co-owners complain about a lack of transparency on the part of the property manager (the “syndic”). The property management agency refuses to submit the invoices on which its accounts are based, the property management agency acts in concert with the building promoter, the property management agency sets up a commission for the appointment of contractors,…’. It’s just a few recurring complaints. Unfortunately, there are also stories of syndicates plundering the accounts of the co-owners. A recent example (reported by a Flemish newspaper) can be read here (in Dutch).

Unfortunately, there are no lists of ‘trustworthy’ syndics. One can of course turn to other associations of co-owners to find out about their experiences. Since 2018, associations of co-owners must register in theCrossroads Bank for Enterprises who they have appointed as syndic.

One of the objectives of TWERES is to facilitate this exchange of experience with property management agencies (e.g. by collecting quality assessments).

Coastal municipal taxation: how big is the imbalance to the detriment of second residents?

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Taxpayers pay additional personal income tax on their income in the municipality where they are domiciled. The proceeds of that tax go to the municipal treasury. In Flanders, supplementary personal income tax averages 7.2% of taxable income.

Like any taxpayer, second residents pay additional personal income tax in the municipality where they first reside. However, they also make use of the municipal infrastructure and services in the municipality of their second residence. That is why it is logical that municipalities also ask second-residents to help bear the costs.

A balanced distribution of the burden between domiciled residents and second residents is, of course, essential here.

An interesting guideline on this balance can be found on page 14 of a “Handbook on second residence” on the website of the Flemish Housing Agency (wonenvlaanderen.be): “In order not to create a shift in the tax burden to persons who are not registered in the municipality’s population registers and who are therefore not eligible to vote there, the rate charged must be in reasonable proportion to the taxes paid by the inhabitants (first and foremost the additional personal income tax and the property tax surcharge).”

It is therefore interesting to take a closer look at the relationship between municipal tax and second residence tax in coastal municipalities. However, this is not as simple as it seems. The tax revenues from the various municipal taxes should actually be available on the websites of the various coastal municipalities. Unfortunately, little relevant information can be found there (!). Fortunately, there are figures on the website of the Flemish Agency for Inland Administration. Among other things, there are tables with an overview of the taxes and their proceeds from 2008 to 2018 for each municipality.

On the basis of these data, we have juxtaposed in a first table for each coastal municipality and for the assessment year 2018 the total proceeds of the additional personal income tax and the total proceeds of the second residence tax. Please note, however, that this first table does not yet take into account the number of taxpayers per municipality. That is why the figures are highest in municipalities with many taxpayers.

MunicipalityRevenue from second residence tax (in millions of euros) Revenue from additional personal income tax payable by resident residents (in millions of euros)Difference (how much more or less is the revenue from second residence tax?) (in millions of euros)
De Panne5,862 0+5,862
Koksijde13,59 0+13,59
Nieuwpoort8,749 2,224 +6,505
Middelkerke8,746 3,447 +5,299
Oostende8,476 17,067 -8,591
Bredene *3,394 4,615 -1,221
De Haan*5,3222,910 +2,412
Blankenberge5,3024,308 +0,994
Brugge1,335 36,734 -35,390
Knokke14,662 0+14,662

* Bredene and De Haan have an important population of second residents in holiday parks and camping pitches. For these municipalities the proceeds of the tax on camping sites and camping stays were added to the figures for the second residence tax. For other municipalities we did not do this because the population mentioned is much lower.

In the majority of the coastal municipalities, the proceeds of the tax on second residences are therefore higher than the municipal tax that the municipalities receive from their own registered residents. However, this may be due to the high number of second homes in those municipalities.

That is why we have taken that number into account in a second table. A first column shows the nominal amount of second-stay tax per stay for 2018. In the case of differentiated rates for different types of second residence, we opted for the contribution due for the second occupation of a studio.

In the second column, the additional personal income tax is divided by the number of domiciled households per municipality (the figures on the number of households can be found on the website https://provincie.incijfers.be ). In this way, it was also possible to calculate the average additional personal income tax per residence occupied by domiciled inhabitants.

MunicipalitySecond residence tax per unit (euro) Supplementary personal income tax per unit first residence (euro) Difference (how much more or less does a second-stayer pay) (in euro)
De Panne5750+575
Koksijde9700+970
Nieuwpoort890356+525
Middelkerke525362+183
Oostende1000468+532
Bredene 850563+286
De Haan500451+49
Blankenberge892403+489
Brugge1000671+329
Knokke7400+740

In all coastal municipalities, therefore, owners of a dwelling occupied by second residents contribute more to municipal finances than owners of dwellings occupied by domiciled households. At the top of the list is Koksijde, where the owners of dwellings occupied by domiciled households pay nothing at all and all charges are borne by owners of second residences.

Since it can be assumed that second-residents make less use of the infrastructure and services than domiciled residents, these taxes have therefore created a substantial shift in the tax burden to persons who are not on the municipality’s population register and are not eligible to vote.

Becoming a fiscal refugee is always possible. Elsewhere on the TWERES website is a report of a study published in 2016 by the Flemish Government’s study service on the number of second homes in Flanders. Apart from the coast, the authors also discovered large absolute numbers of second homes in some cities: Antwerp came top with almost 18,000; Ghent, Bruges, Kortrijk, Hasselt and Mechelen followed with between 2,400 and 6,000 second homes. The fact that these cities are on this list is partly due to the fact that people living in Antwerp or other Flemish cities register their domicile in Knokke-Heist or another coastal municipality.

However, TWERES chooses to enter into dialogue with the coastal municipalities. Where there is no other option, the legal route will be taken and if there are enough members and sympathisers we can, all together, try to persuade politicians to change applicable regulations.

Barometer of the second residence: interesting figures but take them with a grain of salt.

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BNP Paribas Fortis Bank regularly reveals the figures of its “second home barometer”. The 4th and last barometer refers to 2019. The figures relate to second homes bought by Belgians and located in Belgium and abroad. However, the figures also include second homes purchased for rental purposes (including student rooms in university towns, for example). Click here for a presentation of the barometer.

Question about the sale of a mobile home: why is a campsite manager automatically entitled to a percentage of the sales price for each sale of a mobile home?

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Owners of mobile homes, in application of their contract with the campsite manager, are often obliged, when selling their mobile home (even if they sell it to another owner on the same campsite), to give a percentage of the selling price to the campsite manager. If the sale was made possible through the mediation of the campsite manager, this may seem justified. Very often, however, the campsite manager does not play any role in the sale. In that case, this arrangement strongly resembles unjustified enrichment. Individually, there is little that campers can do about it. With TWERES, however, we can work together for balanced model contracts. An example of model contracts are the RECRON conditions for permanent pitches that have been worked out for campsites in the Netherlands.

Second-residents on the Flemish Coast: tourists or residents?

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In 2007 Els Roose wrote a thesis for obtaining the degree of “master in tourism” under the title above. For that dissertation, Els Roose did a study on the integration of second-residents in Oostduinkerke. The conclusion of that study was: “A second-resident distinguishes himself from tourists by the recurring relationship, which builds a familiarity with the environment and can create friendship between neighbours, local traders, inhabitants or other second residents”. Also: “Residents do not want to be considered as tourists but as part of daily life in the local community. After all, after a few years, they have built up a familiarity and bond through their frequent visits”. Finally: “As the months or years of discovery pass, linked to the frequency and intensity of visits, second-residents become familiar with the second residence. At this stage, they have already discovered a great deal in the municipality and have therefore built up a greater knowledge of the region than a tourist. They show a clear interest in the area and inform themselves. In the meantime, they have discovered permanent shops, restaurants and leisure facilities. They find there a certain stability, a second home. Not only can they be familiar with the municipality at this stage, but they can also be connected to it, even if they are not staying there permanently”.

For the full study in Dutch, click here.