What do we see?
Single-family homes offer 0.24 m² of living space per m² of plot; this value remained almost constant between 2016 and 2022. The use efficiency of apartment buildings shows a sharp decline over the same period from 10.4 to 7.6. In 2022, these offer almost 32 times more living area per plot than single-family homes.
What’s the aim?
To relieve the pressure on the environment and reduce the demand for new buildings, we must increase the utilization efficiency of the building area and thus the habitable area per square meter of plot. This can be done, for example, by providing more building layers; however, we must take into account the greater impact of taller buildings due, for example, to deeper foundation works with impact on the soil and groundwater system. Another possibility is the densification of areas that are already built-up, for example by dividing plots or creating subdivisions with smaller plots.
What does this indicator measure?
This indicator is calculated by dividing the total residential surface area of buildings by the surface areas of plots. The residential area is approximated by multiplying the number of residential buildings in Flanders by the reference values of living areas for residential buildings, broken down by year of construction and building type. The surface areas of plots were obtained from the Statbel land register. The latter figures include the entire plots, i.e., including gardens. This partly explains the low figures.
