Airbnb rules in Antwerp 2026: registration, permits and what the city enforces

The Airbnb rules in Antwerp come in three layers: Flemish registration with Toerisme Vlaanderen, the city’s own permit for tourist use, and the city’s overnight tax. Antwerp asks every private or professional host for a correct environmental permit (omgevingsvergunning) under which the building is permitted, or deemed permitted, as tourist accommodation, on top of registration.¹ The permit is the layer most Antwerp units fail, and in June 2026 the Antwerp court showed what that costs.⁸

In this guide

1. Airbnb rules in Antwerp: the three layers
2. The Antwerp tourist tax in brief
3. Enforcement and court cases
4. Apartment buildings and the VME
5. A pre-signing checklist for an Antwerp unit
6. Worked example
7. Questions people ask
8. Sources

This page goes deeper on Antwerp than the Antwerp section of the Belgium and Netherlands guide, which compares the city with the other places.

Airbnb rules in Antwerp: the three layers

Flemish registration and the 2026 amendment

The Logiesdecreet applies to every accommodation in Flanders offered for payment, occasionally or professionally, directly or through an intermediary.⁴ You register online through Toerisme Vlaanderen’s operator portal with your eID and receive your registration number by email at once; if you register with the paper form instead, you may not receive guests until the number arrives a few days later. The unit then appears in the public register of Flemish accommodation.⁵ Booking platforms such as Airbnb must ask for that number.⁴

Registration does not settle planning: Toerisme Vlaanderen says planning and tax fall outside the decree and are checked by other authorities, in Antwerp the city.⁴

Two changes were moving in 2026:

• The amendment to the decree. On 17 July 2026 the Flemish Government sent a draft amending the Logiesdecreet to the Flemish Parliament, to align registration with EU regulation 2024/1028 and to act more forcefully against accommodation used for illegal purposes.⁷ According to VRT NWS, the draft makes platforms share their offer with Toerisme Vlaanderen monthly, lets an owner whose lease forbids tourist subletting ask Toerisme Vlaanderen to act, and should get unregistered listings taken offline.¹⁰ We could not open the Flemish Parliament’s site on 2 November 2026 and found no confirmation that the decree has been adopted, so treat these points as proposals.
• Planning proof for recognition. On 29 May 2026 the Flemish Government approved in principle that a request for recognition (erkenning) must include a planning conformity certificate from the municipality; without it, Toerisme Vlaanderen can no longer grant recognition.⁶ Recognition is voluntary, so this affects owners who want a protected name or stars, not plain registration.⁴

In December 2025 The Brussels Times, with Belga, quoted the Flemish tourism minister: inspections found 40% of accommodation non-compliant, and municipalities would be able to report missing permits so Toerisme Vlaanderen can close a unit.¹³

The permit for tourist use

Antwerp’s page is short and strict: the conditions in the table apply to every host, private or professional.¹ Argus Advocaten, an Antwerp law firm, sums up the principle: a property permitted as a home may not automatically be run as tourist accommodation, and a change in actual use can require a prior permit.¹⁵

Two related points for co-hosts:

• Workers are a separate regime. Letting rooms in a shared house to temporary workers needs a rental permit from the mayor, valid for at most five years, and the building must be permitted as a rooming house.³ For other stays of one month or more, see mid-term rentals in Flanders.
• Empty homes are taxed. Owners of homes where nobody is permanently registered also pay the city’s tax on homes without registration, which matters for a flat used only for guests.¹

The Antwerp tourist tax in brief

Every tourist accommodation in Antwerp is liable for the overnight tax. For room-based accommodation, which includes holiday homes, it is €3.20 per tourist per night excluding VAT; tourists under 12 are exempt.²

• Quarterly declaration. Within 14 days after each quarter you declare the total overnight stays, split into tourists under and over 12, with your enterprise number.²
• Assessment and payment. The city sends an assessment each quarter, payable within two months.²
• Late or wrong declarations. The tax can be set with an increase, and the city can check on site.²

Tourist tax on Airbnb, including who collects it and how it compares with other cities, is covered in tourist tax for Airbnb hosts in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Enforcement and court cases

The Italiëlei judgment, 1 June 2026

The case that defines Antwerp enforcement concerns a building on the Italiëlei with 25 flats permitted for housing. Since 2022 two companies, one owning the building and one renting it, let 23 of those flats on Airbnb.⁸ The court of first instance found:⁸

• Two planning offences. An unpermitted change of main function from housing to tourist accommodation, and an unpermitted reduction of the number of homes from 25 to 2.
• One operation, not 23 small ones. The flats were not “small tourist accommodation”; the building had to be judged as a whole.
• An aggravating circumstance. The defendants were active in the sector professionally.

Each company was fined €28,000, suspended for three years, and profits of €37,500 and €25,000 were confiscated. At the request of the mayor of Antwerp, the court ordered the tourist use to stop within two months and the flats to be offered for sale or rent as housing within six months, with a penalty of €1,000 per company, per flat, per day of delay.⁸ A court spokesperson told VRT NWS to expect such cases more often now that the rules are being tightened.⁹

Tenants who sublet

In July 2026 VRT NWS reported on two tenants who let at least seven owners’ homes, six of them in Antwerp, on Airbnb without permission while falling behind on rent. Airbnb told one owner that direct contact with the tenant was the simplest way to resolve such complaints.¹⁰ For a co-host this is the reverse risk: if the person signing your agreement is a tenant, a lease that allows the letting is one of the nine Flemish conditions.⁴ More in is rental arbitrage legal.

Political pressure

In November 2025 the opposition party PVDA held an “Airbnb safari” in the city centre and claimed, in VRT NWS, that Airbnb locations in Antwerp grew from 1,500 to 2,500 in eight years; a resident asked for a cap per neighbourhood. The alderman for housing declined to comment.¹¹ In June 2026 VRT NWS cited an ING study putting homes used as Airbnb holiday stays at about 5,000 across Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent together.¹² We found no Antwerp cap or stop on the city’s page on 2 November 2026.¹

Apartment buildings and the VME

In a co-owned building, the owners’ association (VME) is a fourth layer. According to the BIV, a VME cannot impose a general ban on letting flats, but it can add a specific ban to the statutes, such as on letting through any online platform, if the point is on the agenda and four-fifths of the votes support it.¹⁴ Ask for the statutes and recent minutes before you sign: a ban adopted last year binds the owner you work for.

The Italiëlei case adds a planning angle. When one owner lets several flats in one building, the court looked at the whole operation rather than flat by flat.⁸

A pre-signing checklist for an Antwerp unit

1. Permit. Ask the owner for the latest omgevingsvergunning or its file number, and check that the property is permitted or deemed permitted as verblijfsrecreatie, not only as housing.¹
2. Zoning and building code. Ask the city whether the RUP, BPA or gewestplan and the building code allow tourist use at that address.¹
3. Scale. If the owner lets several units in one building, treat it as one operation for permit purposes.⁸
4. Registration. Check the unit in the Flemish register and note in whose name it is registered.⁵
5. Fire safety and insurance. See the certificate and the fire and liability policies; see insurance in Flanders.⁴
6. Ownership or lease. If the owner is a tenant, read the lease clause on subletting.⁴¹⁰
7. VME. Read the statutes and the last general meeting minutes for a platform ban.¹⁴
8. Taxes. Agree who declares the overnight tax each quarter, under which enterprise number, and who pays the tax on homes without registration.²¹
9. In writing. Put permits, registration, tax and who pays a fine or penalty in the compliance clause.

Worked example

Questions people ask

Sources

All sources checked 2 November 2026.

1. Stad Antwerpen, “Uitbating toeristische logies”, In Dutch; read in a browser because automated fetching is blocked
2. Stad Antwerpen, “Belasting op overnachtingen in toeristische logies aangeven”, Tax regulation 2026–2031, council decision of 15 December 2025, in Dutch
3. Stad Antwerpen, “Verhuurvergunning voor tijdelijke huisvesting van arbeidskrachten”, In Dutch
4. Vlaanderen Vakantieland (Toerisme Vlaanderen), “Het Vlaamse Logiesdecreet”, Last updated 19 August 2026, in Dutch
5. Toerisme Vlaanderen, “Je logies aanmelden”, In Dutch
6. Vlaamse Regering, “Wijziging regelgeving toeristische logies (Logiesbesluit): controle stedenbouwkundige conformiteit en handhaving stedenbouwkundig beleid”, Decision of 29 May 2026, in Dutch
7. Vlaamse Regering (via Belga Share), “Beslissingen van de ministerraad van 17 juli 2026”, Flemish Government decisions, in Dutch
8. Rechtbank van eerste aanleg Antwerpen, “Persbericht REA Antwerpen: veroordeling van twee vennootschappen in kader van Airbnb-verhuur”, Judgment of 1 June 2026, in Dutch
9. VRT NWS, “Eigenaars 23 illegale Airbnb-appartementen in Antwerpen veroordeeld”, 1 June 2026, in Dutch
10. VRT NWS, “Woningen huren en via Airbnb onderverhuren: duo huurders met creatief businessmodel is schrik van huiseigenaars in Antwerpen”, 29 July 2026, in Dutch
11. VRT NWS, “'Airbnb Safari' door Antwerpse binnenstad tegen stijgende huurprijzen en wildgroei”, 16 November 2025, in Dutch
12. VRT NWS, “Gent in beroep tegen vakantiewoning in de Veldstraat”, 11 June 2026, cites an ING study, in Dutch
13. The Brussels Times, “Flanders tightens Airbnb rules”, 7 December 2025, with Belga
14. BIV, “Vastgoedkwesties: concrete situaties, concrete antwoorden”, Institute for real estate agents, in Dutch
15. Argus Advocaten, “Van appartementsgebouw naar 'hotel': Airbnb-verhuur kan niet zonder de juiste vergunning”, Law firm article, 19 August 2026, in Dutch

We check every figure against the sources above. Spotted something out of date? Email systemen@hostproacademy.com with the guide title.