Brussels is cracking down hard on unregistered short-term rentals, and the bill is adding up fast. The Brussels-Capital Region expects to collect as much as €6 million in penalties by the end of 2026, according to Taxation minister Dirk De Smedt. At least €5 million has already been recovered over 2025 and 2026 from an inspection drive targeting owners who list properties on Airbnb without registering them.
The rules themselves aren't new. Since 2016, every Airbnb property in the Brussels region has been required to register with city authorities, hold fire safety certificates, pass criminal record checks on hosts, and comply with urban planning rules. Guests pay tourist tax on top — €5 per night for whole properties, €4 for a room in a home the owner lives in. A 2022 European Court of Justice ruling forced Airbnb to hand over owner listing data, giving Brussels tax authorities the tools to hunt down rule-breakers.
What they found was striking. A Bruzz investigation cross-checked Airbnb's active Brussels listings against the city's official register of just 546 approved rentals. Of 3,637 active listings, 2,788 were entire homes — and only 267 appeared on the recognised list. In other words, fewer than one in ten listings looked fully compliant. Around 2,000 owners were flagged as potential targets for fines and backdated taxes.
The penalties are deliberately stiff: €1,000 per non-compliant rental, plus unpaid tourist tax, with authorities assuming a property was let out all year round unless the owner could prove otherwise. Councillor Anaïs Maes framed the crackdown as a defence of the city's housing stock — part of the same fight against holiday-let saturation that Amsterdam and Barcelona have been waging.
Relief of a sort is coming for hosts. From 1 January 2027, rules brought in by minister-president Boris Dilliès will mean rooms rented within a primary residence no longer need urban planning certification, safety compliance gets simpler, and — controversially — co-owners of buildings lose their veto over rentals. But registration and tourist tax obligations stay in place, so this is a lightening of paperwork rather than an amnesty. Separately, Airbnb itself has told hosts they can't expect guests to carry out onerous cleaning tasks at checkout.
For travellers, the practical upshot is that legitimate Airbnb options in central Brussels may become fewer but safer and more honest — registered listings meet fire safety standards, and tourist tax is properly collected. If you're booking an apartment in the Belgian capital, it's worth checking that the listing mentions registration, and factoring the €5 nightly tourist tax into your budget. For hosts, the message is clear: register now, because the tax office is no longer guessing.
