Belgium/Brussels Region creates a legal inventory of its real estate assets

More than 40,000 properties - including over 4,000 from the 1939-1999 inventory of architectural heritage - and 3,000 trees are now listed in the Brussels-Capital Region's inventory of immovable heritage, announced Ans Persoons, Secretary of State for Heritage, on Monday, following the adoption of various decrees by the regional government.

Until now, these monuments and trees have only appeared on scientific inventories. From now on, they will benefit from new legal effects with regard to the Brussels Code of Town and Country Planning (CoBAT), with the inventory of the Region's real estate assets having full legal value, explains the Secretary of State. "The Brussels Region finally has a legal inventory of its real estate assets, which provides legal protection for more than 40,000 properties and 3,000 remarkable trees. This inventory entails enhanced protection, including the obligation to request an opinion for property modification projects or planning permission for any modification to the silhouette of remarkable trees", comments Ans Persoons.

In order to have a legal inventory in line with the urban planning legislation laid down in the CoBAT, the Brussels government has adopted several decrees aimed at dethe procedure for drawing up and updating the inventory, its form, the information it must contain, the method of publication and the lists of properties to be included," continues the Secretary of State. Among the properties included in the inventory are the Banque Nationale, built by Marcel Van Goethem in 1940, the Maison Communale and cultural center in Auderghem and the Cité de l'Amitié in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.

Source: www.rtbf.be/