Record number of Flemish people inherits or buys its own forest, piece of nature or cloth agricultural land

According to the analysis of National Flanders, exactly 957,687 Flemish people have a plot in the outlying area. In 1984 there were around 650,000 private owners, in 2004 this number rose to around 850,000 and today Flanders flirted with the 1 million cape. More and more individuals consciously buy or inherit their own piece of greenery.

The rise is partly explained by the inheritance: in Belgium, each child normally gets an equal part of the parental property, which means that property is further split. But the main reason is perhaps that the interest in nature and rural life, together with the increased prosperity, has taken a serious speed in recent years, says the interest group of private landowners.

Agricultural land involves on average surfaces between half and a few hectares that are leased or that are increasingly used as a (mush) garden, or for keeping large pets or for diluvering. In forest land, the majority in Flanders is in the hands of private owners. Barely 38 percent of the forest land in Flanders is in the hands of the government or unknown owners. In nature land, however, this is no less than 70 percent and with agricultural land about 7 percent.

Film files​

Together with the number of private owners, the number of complaint files is also growing to record heights. In 2024, the owners' organization registered more than 150 dragging problem files in which owners bumped into a wall of administrative and legal obstacles. « Owners of a piece of nature, forest or agricultural land are increasingly confronted with absurd situations because the regulations are not clear or more and more and more contradicts each other, » Clearly Flanders. The organization calls on the Flemish government to give private owners more flexibility and to delete outdated laws.