Gistel (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Gistel, led by Mayor Gauthier Defreyne, reduced store vacancies from 7.4% to 4.5% (below Flanders’ 10.8%) by updating records, removing business taxes, hosting events, and promoting local shopping.
The town of Gistel in Belgium, in the province of West Flanders, along with its smaller towns of Zevekote, Moere, and Snaaskerke, has about 50 businesses. They’ve had problems with empty stores. But in 2025, the number of empty stores in Gistel went down a lot, from 7.4% to 4.5 especially since the average number of empty stores in the whole region of Flanders is 10.8%.
Gistel now has one of the lowest numbers of empty stores in the West Flanders region. The mayor, Gauthier Defreyne, says this is because the town has been working hard to fix the problem. He mentioned that one thing they did was check their list of empty stores to make sure they were still empty. This helped them get a better understanding of how many stores were empty.
Mayor Gauthier Defreyne (Team Mayor) says.
These figures are always registered in January. In Flanders, the vacancy rate is an average of 10.8 percent. So we are well below that in Gistel and have one of the lowest vacancy rates in West Flanders. And that has several reasons.
How did Gistel reduce store vacancies and boost business?
According to the officials, to find out which stores were truly empty, the town of Gistel checked each store on their list. They wanted to see if the stores were still used for businesses or if they were now homes or something else. If a store had become a home, the town asked the owner to officially change the store’s status so it wouldn’t be counted as an empty store anymore.
If a store was still empty, the town kept it on the list and watched it closely. They mentioned that by doing this, the town was able to get rid of mistakes on their list, make it easier to manage, and have a more accurate number of empty stores. Officials said that this helped the town reduce the number of empty stores to one of the lowest in the region.
According to the authorities, Gistel also helped businesses by getting rid of business taxes. This made it easier for people to start or keep their businesses in the town. The town also did things to encourage people to spend money in local stores. They gave away free oliebollen (a kind of donut) to people who showed receipts from local stores.
They mentioned that Santa Claus also visited the shopping streets to bring in more people. The town also gave its employees gift vouchers to spend in local stores. They also made a brochure about all the businesses in Gistel and gave it to people. This brochure had information about starting a business in Gistel.
Gistel also wanted to help businesses work together. They held an event where business owners could meet each other, share ideas, and work together. The city told businesses to buy things from other businesses in Gistel first. This was to help businesses in the town support each other. Officials mentioned that this made it easier for businesses to work together and grow.
