Ghent (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Ghent launched a website listing 118 city buildings for sale, lease, or reuse. Alderman Has El-Bazioui cites a €215M budget; opposition Tom De Meester criticizes cascade process, heritage sites included.
As VRT News reported, Ghent has launched a public website that lists 118 city buildings set for divestment, demolition, or new use in the coming years.
“The city has already received about 20 specific inquiries from people interested in one or more buildings,”
says Alderman Has El-Bazioui (Green).
What’s happening with Ghent’s 118 city buildings and heritage sites?
The site gives residents a full overview of all locations and allows people to subscribe for updates as decisions are made. City officials say the cost of maintaining the large property portfolio has become too high, and several buildings can no longer be managed directly.
Some sites will be sold, while others will be leased to outside operators under long-term agreements. Several buildings are also marked for reuse as social housing or community facilities, keeping them in public service while easing the city’s financial load.
The plan has drawn wide attention because several heritage landmarks appear on the list. These include the Rabot Towers, the gateway of the Old Fish Market, and historic city palaces on Veldstraat. Ghent says these buildings will stay in public ownership, but the city is seeking new operators who can manage and maintain them.
The move has sparked debate, as some fear it could weaken public oversight, while others see it as a necessary step to keep the buildings in stable condition. By releasing all information on the new website, the city wants to show that each site will be handled with clear rules, strict heritage protection, and long-term public value as guiding principles.
“It would cost nearly €128 million to renovate these buildings and bring them up to code (energy, asbestos, accessibility, etc.). That amounts to 40 percent of our renovation budget, for one-sixth of our existing assets. That’s unjustifiable.”
The city will review all remaining properties and decide how each will be used.
“We’re allocating €215 million for this. The choices we make today will help create the breathing space we need to realise our vision of climate-resilient, accessible city buildings in all our remaining public buildings,”
El-Bazioui emphasises.
The opposition disputes the city’s claims and says the cascade is not fully respected.
“The list is completely out of the blue. We want to know how the government arrived at this,”
says Tom De Meester (PVDA).
During council debates, critics referred to the public consultation on affordable housing and said these findings should guide decisions on city buildings. Ghent maintains that it is following the cascade and will review each building openly and transparently. Opponents remain skeptical and demand proof that each stage is being properly followed.
“This is a sell-out to the highest bidder,”
says De Meester. Ghent vehemently denies this.
“We haven’t budgeted for any revenue from this operation, precisely because it’s a complex exercise that will also take several years,”
says Alderman Christophe Peters.
For centuries, Ghent has been successfully balancing its 2 roles as manager of its own buildings and as protector of its heritage and public use of those buildings. In 2018, the city began to assess its older properties to determine the need for renovations or reuse.
By the year 2020, the cost of maintenance for these older properties had become prohibitive, and city officials began to evaluate opportunities to sell some of the properties or work with partners outside of the city’s management. In 2023, the city established the “cascade” principle.
