Housing inequality in Belgium: Novel estimates and a policy application

56 Pages Posted: 31 Oct 2023 Last revised: 11 Apr 2025

See all articles by Gerard Domènech-Arumí

Gerard Domènech-Arumí

Vanderbilt University - College of Arts and Science - Department of Economics

Paula E. Gobbi

Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Date Written: April 11, 2025

Abstract

We construct and make publicly available novel housing inequality estimates for Belgium using data on the universe of real estate. We use all recent (2006-22) transactions and machine learning to predict the value of all dwellings in Belgium and estimate housing value and space inequality across all existing administrative levels. Nationwide inequality is relatively low (Gini of 0.25) but highly heterogeneous across and within municipalities. We find a strong correlation between our housing (value) estimates and measures of income at different aggregation levels, suggesting that housing (value) inequality is informative of income inequality. As an application of our data, we exploit temporal and regional variation of a policy that reduced housing registration fees by three percentage points in Flanders, and show that the policy increased housing prices by 3% and mildly reduced overall housing inequality by compressing the dwelling value distribution from below. The significant geographic heterogeneities documented highlight the importance of granularity when studying inequality and housing.

Keywords: Inequality, Housing Market, Fiscal Policy

JEL Classification: D31, R21, R31

Suggested Citation

Domènech-Arumí, Gerard and Gobbi, Paula E., Housing inequality in Belgium: Novel estimates and a policy application (April 11, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4588122 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4588122

Gerard Domènech-Arumí (Contact Author)

Vanderbilt University - College of Arts and Science - Department of Economics ( email )

Box 1819 Station B
Nashville, TN 37235
United States

Paula E. Gobbi

Universite Libre de Bruxelles ( email )

Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/gobbipaula/

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