Notary fees in Belgium: what you pay and why

What “notary fees” really contain

notaire.be splits the bill into three parts:

1. Registration duties, a tax collected for the Regions. In Brussels the standard rate is 12.5%, with an abatement for a sole home: see registration duties.
2. The notary’s fees, set by the tariff.
3. Searches and administrative formalities paid to administrations (tax, planning, cadastral and mortgage searches, certificates). The notary asks for an advance to cover them.

notaire.be stresses that the notary keeps only a reduced share of what you pay at signing.

The legal tariff

Fees for a private sale are calculated under the royal decree on notaries’ fees (consolidated version of 9 February 2026). Two scales exist for a sale of property:

• Scale J, the general scale, on the price and charges;
• Scale Jbis, lower, for natural persons who buy in full ownership a property used only as housing, which will be their sole home.

With Jbis you must set your legal domicile in the home within one year of the deed, failing which you pay the difference with scale J within a month of that deadline. The tariff’s fixed amounts and flat fee are indexed every two years on 1 January.

The notary’s tariffed fee also covers the preparatory advice, correspondence and drafting of the deed; third-party costs (disbursements) and the administrative flat fee are separate.

Choosing your notary

notaire.be answers: “Oui, à quelques exceptions près, vous pouvez choisir le notaire que vous souhaitez !” The buyer may use a different notary from the seller’s. The Brussels model sales agreement says each party can choose a notary freely at no extra cost and asks them to tell the other side within 8 calendar days of the agreement. When two notaries act, fees are shared, not doubled (notaire.be FAQ on files with several parties). Because the tariff is the same everywhere, choose on availability, proximity and how well the office explains things to you.

The notaries’ directory searches by postcode or municipality and offers French and Dutch. I found no official statement on the language of the deed; if you speak neither language, ask the office before signing whether it can work with you in English, and bring your own adviser if needed.

A worked example: €300,000, Brussels, sole home, no mortgage

On top come, as estimates from notaire.be’s 2025 example (a €250,000 purchase): disbursements about €304, mortgage-registry transcription about €285, and writing duty and annexes about €200 (VAT also applies to disbursements and the writing duty). These vary by file. Registration duties for the same purchase: €12,500 in Brussels. The flat fee is €627 instead of €855 for a linked second deed such as a mortgage deed signed with the purchase.

VAT and the deposit

VAT of 21% applies to the notary’s fees and to the formalities, not to registration duties (notaire.be). Before the deed, the notary asks for an advance for searches. No scale fixes its amount: ask for a detailed statement.

Which professional to consult

Meet a notary before you sign the sale agreement, so the document is read first. A credit broker or your bank handles the loan, whose deed is also signed before a notary. See the notary and the sale agreement.