Badala

Responsible Landlords for Affordable Housing

Set up quietly in October 2023, in 2025 Badala will take concrete form in Saint-Gilles, in cooperation with the “housing” working party of the social action coordination forum set up by the Saint-Gilles social services department (CPAS/OCMW), before being extended throughout Brussels.

Aims: Badala sets out to be the militant grouping of property owners who:

  • want to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem (of the criminal shortage of affordable housing)
  • don’t identify with the excesses of the Syndicat National des Propriétaires et Copropriétaires
  • (SNPC) and the views expressed in its statements and its magazine (Le CRI)
  • wish to form an alternative legitimate representative of property owners
  • …

Fundamentals:

  • The primary function of housing is social (cf. Article 23 of the Constitution), ahead of a possible economic function [>< maximum return on investment]
  • The balance of power between owners and tenants is extremely unbalanced, to the disadvantage of tenants
  • A building designated as “residential” under planning law must be lived in (leaving a building unoccupied amounts to an unauthorised unilateral change in use)
  • The balance of power between owners and tenants is profoundly unbalanced: Badala welcomes the concomitant launch of Wuune and the setting-up of the Joint Rental Commission (Commission paritaire locative/ Paritaire Huurcommissie)
  • The index-linking of rents is not justified [In the Brussels Capital Region, rents already increase by 20% more than inflation every 10 years]
  • House/apartment prices have been increasing for decades
  • (Before the mortgage is paid off) the tenants pay for the owner to buy the house/apartment
  • (Once the mortgage has been paid off) the tenants pay the owner for the house/apartment all over again
  • Rent is a source of income …
  • …

 

Undertakings (examples):

  • No discrimination (origin, status, etc.) or other illegal practices
  • No Airbnb
  • No coliving
  • Application of the indicative rent
  • No index-linking of rents (increases only where “justified”)
  • Rent fixed (for 20 years?) if the owner has received public money to bring the house or apartment in line with the ecological transition standards
  • Social housing agency — agence immobilière sociale (AIS)/ Sociaal Verhuurkantoor (SVK): spontaneous extension of the advantages for the owner
  • No systematic application for grants (intended for owners who can’t manage without them)
  • No eviction without (thinking about) rehousing
  • No eviction during the winter
  • …

Advocacy (examples)

  • Advocating for lease-purchase
  • Advocating for the taxation of rental income
  • Advocating for the expropriation of housing units left unoccupied for extended periods
  • Advocating for tenants who are forced to leave a property which is unfit to live in to be paid a rehousing allowance by the owner who is at fault
  • Advocating for social housing agencies (AIS/SVK), Fair Ground Brussels, Community Land Trust (CLT)...
  • …

Interested? Concerned? Curious?
Contact : Laurent d’Ursel or Syndicat des immenses