Approximately 226,000 Belgian retirees receive their pension payments abroad, including around 75,000 Belgian nationals who have chosen to relocate permanently, according to figures from Belgium’s Federal Pensions Service (FPS).

As reported by The Brussels Times, the main reasons for this growing trend include lower living costs, tax incentives, and more favourable climates.

In terms of destinations, France is the most popular, with nearly 27,000 Belgian retirees, who were attracted by its proximity to Belgium, language and accessible healthcare.

In terms of popularity of places for Belgian pensioners to move to, France was followed by Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal and Italy.

In addition to areas in the European Union, Belgian retirees are moving to Swiss towns, Turkish coasts, Thailand and Mauritius.

According to L’Avenir, further afield destinations are seeing the biggest growth in the number of Belgian pensioners, for example, the number of Belgian pensioners in Morocco has doubled since 2014.

Meanwhile, Thailand has seen a 130 per cent increase in the number of foreign pensioners, while Portugal has seen a 348 per cent increase.

The reason behind this decision was explained to be driven by finances, as comfortable lifestyles are more affordable in countries like Morocco or Turkey, where monthly expenses are less than half of those in Belgium.

However, the rules are being tightened in some locations, making them less attractive for pensioners.

For example, Portugal’s Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) tax regime, which allowed foreign pensioners to pay little or no tax on their pensions for 10 years, ended in December 2023 for new applicants. This was replaced by NHR 2.0, which instead focused on attracting skilled professionals as foreign residents.

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