Selling your property, without the arithmetic error
The sale price is not what you pocket. Between the listing and the notary's transfer sit the agency commission, the certificates, the balance of your loan, the mortgage release, and sometimes capital gains tax. Here is the seller's calculation, in the order it actually comes up.
What the sale really leaves you
A seller looks at the price. What counts is the balance that lands in the account, and you get it by taking six things off the price:
Good news on the other hand, and it often surprises: the notary's fees and the registration duties on the sale are borne by the buyer, not the seller. If you appoint your own notary, they are paid out of the same pot: having your own notary costs you nothing extra.
Do this calculation before setting your price, not after accepting an offer. It is the net balance that has to carry your next project — the deposit on your next purchase, a repayment, savings. The asking price says nothing about it.
Capital gains: who pays, who does not
This is the question that worries people most, and for the majority of sellers the answer is reassuring. The property capital gains regime is long-standing and separate from the tax on financial capital gains that came into force in 2026: do not conflate the two, they share neither their base nor their rules.
The decision tree has four branches:
Two useful reflexes. First, it is the dates of the deeds that count — purchase deed and sale deed — not the dates of the compromis. Second, acquisition costs and works carried out by a registered contractor generally increase the acquisition value taken into account, and therefore reduce the taxable gain: keep the invoices, they are worth money.
If the property is not your own home, put the question to the notary before signing the compromis, not after. At that stage you can still push the sale back a few months if the calendar works against you; after the compromis you cannot.
The documents you must produce
A seller does more than open the door: they have to supply a file, and some items take weeks. Requesting them too late is the leading cause of a postponed signing.
That file is exactly what the buyer will comb through. Our compromis checklist takes it from their point of view: reading it before you list will spare you the questions you have no answer to.
Agency or not
Selling on your own is lawful and common. Going through an agency equally so. The question is not moral but arithmetical: the commission is justified if the agency obtains a price or a timeframe you would not have obtained.
What to read in the mandate, and what matters more than the headline rate:
A non-exclusive, shorter mandate with several agencies often costs the same percentage and leaves you in control. It is the reasonable default when the property sells easily on its own.
Setting the price, and holding it
The reflex is to start high “to leave room”. That is almost always an arithmetic error. A property gets a short window of attention when it goes live: that is when the viewings come. Too expensive at that moment and it misses the window, and the successive reductions that follow flag it as a property that will not shift.
Two comparison points beat a single valuation: what genuinely comparable properties actually sold for — not what they were asking — and a valuation from a professional who does not hold the mandate. Our property deal analyzer walks the opposite path, the buyer's: it shows what your property looks like from the other side.
Finally, the energy label now weighs on the price, and not symbolically. A poor label is not made up for with decoration: it is offset by the price, or by works done before listing.
The compromis binds you
In Belgium the compromis de vente is not an intention: it is the sale. As soon as there is agreement on the thing and the price, both parties are bound. The notarial deed that follows records the sale and makes it enforceable against third parties, but it does not create the commitment — that already exists.
Concrete consequences for the seller:
Have the compromis reviewed before you sign, even — especially — if it comes from the agency. The notary does it at no extra charge: their fee on the sale is the same whether they saw the compromis or discover it.
Selling and buying again: order matters
Sell then buy, or the reverse: that is the real puzzle, and it is financial before it is logistical. Buying first means carrying two loans or finding bridging finance; selling first means housing yourself in between.
A bridging loan answers the first case: the bank advances the expected proceeds of the sale, over a short term, and you generally pay interest only until the sale completes. It costs money, and it assumes the sale goes through at the price and within the timeframe announced — that is where the risk sits.
In both cases the first figure is the same: what price do your net balance and your capacity allow on the next purchase? The capacity simulator computes it by taking purchase costs out of your savings, and our pillar on the mortgage contract sets out what the bank looks at when that moment comes.
Before making an offer on another property, know what your sale actually leaves you — loan balance, release and costs deducted. An offer resting on the asking price of your current property is an offer resting on a figure that does not exist.
What we do not put a figure on
Agency commission rates are not regulated: they are negotiated, and publishing an average would turn it into a norm. Ask for two or three mandates and compare them line by line — duration, exclusivity, what the commission covers.
Nor do we publish the rates and time limits of property capital gains tax: we have not yet worked them through against the official text, and that is the kind of figure better left out than approximated. The structure described above is stable; the values are confirmed free of charge by the FPS Finance or your notary.
The cost of certificates and of the mortgage release varies with the property, the region and the operator. Your notary draws up a seller's statement before signing, just as they draw one up for the buyer: ask for it, it is free.
The notary's statement is the only document that gives your exact net balance. You get it before the signing, not on the day — and that is the moment to check the property tax apportionment is actually in it.
The tools that go with this
A sale almost always finances the next purchase. The two calculations belong together: