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2026 scale
Notary fees in Belgium 2026: the real calculation, item by item
"Budget 12 to 15% for costs" is what everyone repeats, and it lumps together two things that have nothing to do with each other. The overwhelming majority of that sum goes to the Region as registration duty. The share that actually reaches the notary is fixed to the cent by a Royal Decree — and it works out at about 1.3% of the price. Here is the exact breakdown.
📖 8 min read
🕐 Updated August 2026
🇧🇪 All of Belgium
When the bank asks "and the costs, do you have them?", it means a total that bundles three very different things: a regional tax, regulated fees and disbursements. Confusing them is expensive, because only two of those items really vary with your situation — and not the ones you would expect.
This page focuses on the part nobody breaks down: what the notary charges. For registration duty, which depends entirely on the Region where the property sits, we have a page per Region: Brussels, Wallonia, Flanders, plus a national comparison.
The three items on the bill — and who collects what
On a standard purchase, the "notary's bill" actually contains money heading in three separate directions. The notary only collects the first two.
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1. Registration duty — for the Region
The heavy item: 12.5% in Brussels and Wallonia, 12% in Flanders at the full rate, with heavily reduced regimes for a sole and own home (3% in Wallonia, 2% in Flanders, the Brussels allowance). The notary collects it and forwards it to the regional tax authority. He keeps none of it.
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2. Disbursements — for third parties
Mortgage searches, cadastral extracts, planning information, registration fees at the Legal Security office, postage and application costs. The notary advances these and passes them on. Part of it is a statutory flat amount; the rest is billed to the euro.
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3. Fees — for the notary
The only part that pays for the notary's work. It is set by Royal Decree, degressive, identical throughout Belgium, and subject to 21% VAT. Contrary to a persistent myth, it is not negotiable.
💡 The proportion that puts things in perspective
On a €300,000 purchase in Wallonia at the full rate, you will pay roughly €37,500 in registration duty and roughly €4,150 to the notary, VAT included. In other words: nine out of every ten "cost" euros are a regional tax. Choosing a different notary will not change a cent of the total.
The official fee scale (scale J)
Belgian notaries' fees are set by the Royal Decree of 16 December 1950, whose applicable consolidated version is that of 9 February 2026, after indexation on 1 January 2026. For a private sale of immovable property, scale J applies, calculated on the total price and the charges forming part of it.
That scale has a fixed part of €285 (reduced by €86 where the base does not exceed €20,000) and a degressive proportional part: the higher the price, the lower the percentage applied to the upper band.
| Price band |
Rate |
Fee on the band |
| Fixed part | — | €285.00 |
| 0 → €7,500 | 2.50% | €187.50 |
| €7,500 → €17,500 | 2.50% | €250.00 |
| €17,500 → €30,000 | 1.75% | €218.75 |
| €30,000 → €45,495 | 1.71% | €264.96 |
| €45,495 → €64,090 | 1.14% | €211.98 |
| €64,090 → €250,095 | 0.57% | up to €1,060.23 |
| above €250,095 | 0.20% | €2 per €1,000 band |
The absolute minimum proportional fee is €8.55, rising to €48 for deeds involving legal entities. These amounts are excluding VAT: add 21%.
⚠️ A notary cannot give you a discount. Article 16 of the Royal Decree provides that any breach of the scale is punished under the Act of 6 March 1818, without prejudice to disciplinary sanctions. A notary offering "a gesture" on his fee is committing an offence. Fee sharing is permitted only between notaries (Article 14).
The €855 in administrative costs — the flat fee few people know
This is the least understood part of the bill, and yet it is written in black and white in Article 2, § 2 of the Royal Decree:
"For deeds of sale, whether by private agreement or public auction, of immovable property, deeds relating to their financing or refinancing, excluding release of mortgage, and basic deeds or subdivision deeds and their amendments, the total amount of administrative costs and non-itemisable disbursements is set at EUR 855, excluding VAT."
Two very concrete consequences:
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The second linked deed costs less
Where several deeds concern the same legal transaction — typically the deed of sale and the mortgage deed signed the same day — the flat fee drops to €627 excluding VAT per deed from the second onwards. Putting both deeds with the same notary, on the same day, therefore genuinely saves money.
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The final statement must be itemised
Article 2, § 3 obliges the notary to state fees, administrative costs and disbursements separately in the final receipt. If your statement shows a single "deed costs" line, you may — and should — ask for the breakdown.
What that means in euros: four worked examples
Calculated using scale J above, for a standard purchase of an existing property with a single deed of sale. Registration duty is not included: it depends on the Region and on your regime.
| Purchase price |
Fees excl. VAT |
+ €855 flat fee |
Total incl. 21% VAT |
| €150,000 | €1,907.88 | €2,762.88 | €3,343.09 |
| €250,000 | €2,477.88 | €3,332.88 | €4,032.79 |
| €350,000 | €2,678.24 | €3,533.24 | €4,275.22 |
| €500,000 | €2,978.24 | €3,833.24 | €4,638.22 |
What this table shows
Between €150,000 and €500,000 the price triples, but the notary's share rises by only 39%.
The degressivity is brutal: above €250,095, each additional €1,000 band costs only €2 in fees (€2.42 incl. VAT). On an expensive property, the "notary's bill" is therefore almost entirely registration duty. To see the impact on your overall budget, our borrowing capacity page and the real estate deal analyzer factor these costs in.
The mortgage deed: the second deed people forget to budget
If you borrow, there is not one deed but two: the deed of sale and the deed creating the mortgage. The second has its own cost, often left out of online simulations.
1
Fees on the mortgage deed
Calculated on the amount borrowed, under the scale applicable to financing deeds. Same degressive logic as the sale scale.
2
Mortgage registration duty
1% of the amount registered as a mortgage, plus the registration fee at the Legal Security office. This item is proportional to the loan, not to the price of the property.
3
The reduced administrative flat fee
€627 excl. VAT instead of €855, since it is the second deed of the same transaction. Both deeds must actually be handled together.
🎯 The reflex that saves €228 excl. VAT
Entrust the deed of sale and the mortgage deed to the same notary, within the same transaction. That is the condition the Royal Decree sets for the reduced €627 flat fee. Some banks impose their own notary for the mortgage deed: ask explicitly whether everything can be grouped.
Two notaries cost no more
This is the question that always comes up, and the answer is written in Article 12 of the Royal Decree: "the involvement of more than one notary in the same deed does not increase the fee". Fees are shared between them under Article 14, without buyer or seller paying a cent more.
Concretely: if the seller has a notary and you want your own, you can. You get a professional defending your interests when reviewing the sale agreement and the deed, free of charge. That is probably the best value for money in the whole buying process. Our sale agreement checklist sets out what to have checked.
What genuinely reduces the bill (and what does nothing)
❌ What changes nothing
The false savings
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Comparing notaries: the scale is identical everywhere, by law.
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Negotiating the fee: that is an offence, not a negotiation.
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Giving up your own notary: it is free, so giving it up gains nothing.
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Understating the price in the deed: that is fraud, punished by a fine and a reassessment.
✅ What really matters
The real levers
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The registration duty regime: sole and own home, reduced rate, allowance. That is where tens of thousands of euros are decided.
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Grouping the sale and the loan with the same notary (€627 flat fee instead of €855).
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Separating the price of the property from that of the furniture, where part of the price genuinely relates to movables — and you can prove it.
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Checking whether portability or a refund of duty already paid applies to your situation.
Common pitfalls
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Assuming the bank will finance the costs
Most Belgian banks lend the price, not the costs. You therefore need several thousand euros available at signature, on top of any down payment. Our page on approaching the bank sets out what you will be asked for.
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Forgetting that the clock starts at the sale agreement
The notarial deed must in principle be executed within four months of the sale agreement, on pain of a tax penalty. The advances the notary requests therefore arrive faster than you think.
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Not asking for the itemised statement
You are entitled to a receipt distinguishing fees, administrative costs and disbursements, with the scale number applied. If an item looks odd, that is the document that lets you check it.
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Confusing new-build and existing property
For a property sold under the VAT regime (new build), there is no registration duty on the building but 21% VAT — a completely different calculation. The fee scale, however, stays the same.
🕐 Last verified: August 2026 — Scale J and flat fees taken from the official consolidation of the notarial scale on 9 February 2026 (after indexation on 1 January 2026). Registration duty evolves separately, Region by Region.