Ninove (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Starting October 2025, Ninove will tighten social housing rules, prioritising long-term residents. Alderman D’haeseleer says 1,000 applicants will face a cascade system favouring locals over newcomers.
As VRT News reported, Ninove will implement new social housing allocation rules beginning October 2025. The municipality will reform social housing, scrapping the current priority list and reordering applicants in a major policy change. In Flanders, anyone who wants social housing must meet certain conditions.
One of the main rules is the “local connection,” which requires applicants to have lived in the municipality continuously for at least 5 of the last 10 years. Alderman D’haeseleer said this approach made Ninove the most flexible municipality in the region.
What changes will Ninove make to social housing rules?
The city council is expected to approve the changes in October 2025. D’haeseleer said the goal is to create a fairer and more sustainable system. Social housing will now serve those who have strong ties to the municipality.
“The intention is that those who have lived here all their lives, or at least 40 years, will be the first to be considered,”
D’haeseleer said.
“Then come those who have lived in Ninove for 35 years, and so on. So it will be a kind of cascade system.”
Alderman D’haeseleer has spoken openly about the city’s reasons for changing social housing rules. The stricter regulations will have a major impact on Ninove’s waiting list in the coming months. Currently, around 1,000 people are waiting for social housing in the city. He mentioned that the goal is to make sure that social housing benefits residents who have lived in Ninove for many years rather than newcomers.
“We’re ensuring that no longer are all foreigners looking for social housing automatically drawn to Ninove. Those who are from Ninove will be given priority,”
D’haeseleer said.
Ninove is not the first municipality to tighten social housing rules. Social housing in Flanders has been regulated since the 1960s, when the Flemish government first introduced laws to provide affordable housing for low-income residents. In 1997, the region implemented stricter eligibility rules, including the “local connection” requirement.
Over the 2000s and 2010s, many municipalities, particularly around Brussels, gradually tightened these rules to prioritise long-term residents as waiting lists grew longer. In 2010, Aalst introduced a policy giving top priority to residents who had lived in the city for 30 years or their entire life, followed by those living there for 15 years or more.
