Yes, usually. In Wallonia the current first-home benefit is the reduced 3% registration duty on an own and single home (since 1 January 2025). It turns on not already fully owning another dwelling and making the property your main residence, not on residence history, so a returning expatriate who meets those tests qualifies (wallonie.be, 2025).
The phrase “first-home benefit” now points, in Wallonia, to the reduced registration duty rather than to the old Chèque Habitat, which ended for deeds from 1 January 2025 (BNP Paribas Fortis, 2025). Since that date, buying your own and single home (habitation propre et unique) is taxed at 3% instead of the ordinary 12.5% (wallonie.be, 2025). For a returning expatriate, the key question is whether the qualifying conditions look at your past abroad. They do not.
The conditions are about ownership and occupation. You must not already own the entirety in full ownership of another dwelling, the property must become your main residence with domicile registered at the commune within three years for an existing home (five years for land or a home under construction), and you must keep it as your main residence for at least three years (wallonie.be, 2025). None of these mentions where you lived before or your nationality. So a Belgian returning from years abroad, or a foreign national settling in Wallonia, is assessed on exactly the same footing as a local buyer.
The one genuine trap is a property still held abroad. Because the benefit requires this to be your single home, a returnee who has kept a house in another country may fail the test, not because they were an expatriate, but because that foreign property breaks the single-home condition. A counter-intuitive consequence: selling or not fully owning the foreign home can be what unlocks the 3% rate. This is worth planning before signing the compromis, since the rate is set at the deed.
Easyhome checks the single-home condition with each returning client, including any property held abroad, so the correct rate is applied and no supplementary duty is triggered later.
At a glance
- Current first-home benefit: reduced 3% registration duty on an own and single home since 1 January 2025 (wallonie.be, 2025).
- Replaces: the Chèque Habitat, ended for deeds from 1 January 2025 (BNP Paribas Fortis, 2025).
- Condition 1: you do not already fully own another dwelling.
- Condition 2: the property becomes your main residence, domicile within 3 years (5 for land or new build).
- Condition 3: keep it as your main residence for at least 3 years.
- Returnee trap: a home kept abroad can break the single-home test; nationality and past residence do not.