You buy, renovate and resell or let several properties in Wallonia or Brussels. Entrusting these operations to the same architect speeds up feasibility studies, aligns technical choices and better prepares each planning permission.
Wallonia remains the most accessible region in the country. According to the latest Property Barometer from the Fédération du Notariat (Fednot, the Belgian notaries' federation), a house in Wallonia costs on average 270,239 € and a flat 216,239 €, compared with a national average of 360,613 € for a house and 287,616 € for a flat. The gaps between provinces remain significant: in the first half of 2026, a house cost on average 471,945 € in Walloon Brabant and 268,222 € in the province of Namur.
The context is tightening, however. In Wallonia, the number of sales fell by 5.1% in the third quarter, which the notaries attribute mainly to more expensive credit. For investors, this means one thing: margins are increasingly made not at the point of purchase but through the quality of the renovation. Entry costs also weigh in: for an investment property, registration duties are identical at 12.5% in both Regions, Wallonia and Brussels. Every design mistake now costs more than before.
The first deal lays the foundations
On a first project, the architect gets to know you. Your target tenants or buyers. Your finishing standards. Your appetite for risk. Your way of financing and your timeline.
This groundwork takes time. If you change architect for every property, you redo it each time, and you pay for it each time, in fees as well as lost weeks. With a dedicated architect, this foundation is already in place. The second deal picks up where the first left off.
In practice, we keep a record of each investor's choices:
- housing typologies that let or sell well in their areas (studio, one bedroom, duplex with garden);
- target floor areas per unit and finishing standards;
- renovation budget per square metre observed on previous sites;
- friction points encountered with contractors or authorities.
Faster feasibility studies
An investor chaining projects together often has to decide quickly: an offer to submit within a few days, a conditional sale agreement (compromis) to sign. This is where an architect who knows you makes the difference.
Before the purchase, we can tell you within a short time:
- how many dwellings the building can reasonably accommodate, given its volumes, light and access points;
- whether the subdivision will require planning permission, and how complex that process will be;
- the broad lines of the renovation budget, based on your previous sites rather than theoretical ratios;
- the points that deserve an on-site check (structure, damp, roof, party walls).
Where the property warrants it, a 3D scan survey carried out by BimBot, the brand of our partner engineering firm Optibim, provides a reliable set of base drawings from the very first days. You won't discover halfway through the study that a bay is narrower than expected.
The benefit isn't just speed. It's the quality of the decision. A properly conducted feasibility study above all prevents you from buying a property whose potential has been overestimated.
Technical consistency from one site to the next
From one deal to the next, an investor has every interest in standardising what can be standardised. Not to produce identical dwellings, but to make costs and maintenance more predictable.
With a dedicated architect, we can build a common foundation with you:
- proven construction details for internal or external insulation, acoustic floors between dwellings, service ducts;
- a repeatable approach to building services (heating, ventilation, separate meters), developed with Optibim's engineers;
- a range of materials and finishes that your tenants appreciate and your contractors know;
- a specification document whose structure stays the same, making it easier to compare quotes.
This foundation doesn't erase the character of each building. An old stone farmhouse near Gembloux isn't converted the same way as a brick townhouse in Namur. But the fundamental decisions have already matured, and the design effort goes where it counts: the light, the volumes, the quality of the spaces that will drive rental value.
Anticipating planning permission from one property to the next
This is often the most underestimated point. Dividing a house or building into several dwellings is not a simple internal fit-out. In Wallonia, the Code du Développement Territorial (CoDT, the Territorial Development Code) requires planning permission to be obtained before creating a new dwelling within an existing building. And as soon as the operation grows in scale, an architect becomes mandatory: this applies when at least one dwelling already exists and you create 2 or more, or when the property needs to be extended.
Timescales also matter for your financing plan. The Service public de Wallonie (the Walloon public service) states that obtaining a permit takes 30 to 115 days, depending on the procedure, once your application is declared complete. The key word is "complete": an imprecise file delays the start of the clock.
When we follow several of your projects, we build on what each application teaches us:
- a municipality's expectations regarding minimum dwelling size, parking or bicycle and bin storage rooms;
- the comments received during a public enquiry or an opinion from the delegated official (fonctionnaire délégué);
- how to present a subdivision project so that it is clear and defensible.
The CoDT also provides a useful tool for sensitive projects: the project meeting (réunion de projet). Under article D.IV.31, before filing an application for a certificate or permit, the project proponent can request a project meeting with the authorities. The meeting is held within twenty days of the request. For an investor who regularly returns to the same municipality, this upfront dialogue becomes more efficient from one deal to the next.
Finally, planning law isn't the only regulation to watch. The Code wallon du Logement (the Walloon Housing Code) requires a rental permit in addition to planning permission for certain types of dwellings, particularly shared housing. It's better to factor this in from the sketch stage than to discover it once letting begins.
How we organise this follow-up at STARC
Behind the scenes, this follow-up rests on a few simple habits. A main point of contact follows your operations, supported by the team depending on the phase: architects, architect-engineers, interior architects, draughtspeople and a BIM coordinator. Your projects are modelled in BIM, which allows us to reuse element families, details and quantity take-offs from one file to the next. Optibim's engineers provide support on structural stability, building services and PEB (EPB), with the same contacts from one deal to the next.
After each site, we review things together: what worked, what cost more than expected, what tenants or buyers appreciated. This feedback feeds directly into the next feasibility study.
An ongoing relationship doesn't mean a rigid commitment. Each assignment remains defined project by project, with its own fees and its own timeline. The difference is that we never start from scratch.
Preparing a new acquisition, or already have several properties to convert in the provinces of Namur, Walloon Brabant or in Brussels? Get in touch with STARC in Gembloux to discuss it. We'll look together at the potential of your next property and how to organise the rest of your operations.