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Activities of building architects

Current registrations 18,227division 71: 39,542
Starters, 12 months 1,0115.5 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 241.3 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 2,072396 employers · latest accounts
Median age 10.6 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 91.0%16,584 of 18,226 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 71111 · financial year 2025 · 6,338 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
52.0%
division 51.0% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€16,489
division €18,887 · Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€77,508
division €83,963 · Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
19.7%
division 21.3% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
7.6%
division 8.5% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
19.4%
division 20.7% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.98
division 1.94 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
34.2%
financial year 2024, 6,163 filings · division 33.6% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
3.1%
of 6,594 companies with annual accounts · division 3.5% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 47.8%50.7%50.9%51.9%53.1%52.0%
Median net result €12,574€15,347€15,082€15,069€15,508€16,489

Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
69
0.38% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
92
5.0 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
26-10-2026 Architecten Emmanuel Lenders en Partners
BE 0447.103.385
23-10-2026 ORBIS ARCHITECTURE
BE 0763.333.778
30-09-2026 Van Valckenborgh, Jürgen
BE 0864.153.895 · sole trader
21-09-2026 ARMITAGE
BE 0504.920.830
16-09-2026 JAMES CONSULTING
BE 0741.873.123
27-08-2026 HDN ARCHITECTURE
BE 0766.503.403
24-08-2026 ATELIER - MARTIN et ASSOCIES
BE 0442.314.159
17-08-2026 Nopère, Philippe
BE 0653.384.476 · sole trader

Every bankruptcy in division 71, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 8,145 of 18,227 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 5,095 · 62.6%
  • Wallonia 1,827 · 22.4%
  • Brussels 1,199 · 14.7%
  • Abroad 24 · 0.3%
fewer moremax 1,555

Largest employers

NACE 71111 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 BURO II & ARCHI + IBrussels 75.9 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 VastgoedexpertsLaakdal 73.6 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 TECCONBeveren-Kruibeke-Zwijndrecht 51.1 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 WICREATIONSHeist-op-den-Berg 40.1 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 ARCHIPELAGO ARCHITECTSWoluwe-Saint-Pierre 31.6 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 855 companies
  • 336 Liberal professions 614
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 201
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 46
  • 124 Construction 26
  • 145 Horticulture 10
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 6
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 4
  • 126 Furnishing and woodworking 3
Show the 11 others
  • 201 Independent retail 3
  • 302 Hotels and catering 3
  • 144 Agriculture 2
  • 226 White-collar workers in international trade, transport and logistics 2
  • 323 Building management, estate agents and domestic staff 2
  • 101 Mining 1
  • 132 Technical farming and horticulture work 1
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 1
  • 317 Security and surveillance services 1
  • 330 Health institutions and services 1
  • 337 Auxiliary committee for the non-profit sector 1

Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.

Division 71: Architecture and engineering

Related activities

5 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Engineering and related technical consultancy, excluding land surveyors71121 11,531 1,080 35 24,090
Activities of interior architects71112 3,882 279 19 426
Urban planning and landscape architecture71113 2,244 197 6 292
Land surveying71122 1,740 59 3 706
Architectural and engineering activities; technical testing and analysis71119 38 20 0 -

Bankruptcies per year in division 71

Per year201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Bankruptcies12487729411276799710811499102
Jobs lost219137116183170149128211180181209184

2026 through September. Every bankruptcy, also of companies that have since left the register. Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics), NACE classification of 2008.

Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 71

1,478 employers
Median
€70,400
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€56,400 to €86,300
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
24 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
fewer than 10 FTE €64,600 €50,700 to €79,300 946
10 to 49 FTE €77,600 €65,400 to €90,100 385
50 to 249 FTE €80,200 €72,400 to €100,700 123
250 FTE or more €90,000 €84,100 to €107,600 24

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 71
Number
203
Half have run longer than
20 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
39%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,562 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 28% after liquidation, 3% were withdrawn. After five years, 20% were still open. Half had ended after 26 months (a quarter after 15, three quarters after 51 months).

This counts companies with this main activity in the register on 6 November 2026. The outcome itself is not measured by sector. The activity of a company that leaves the register after its bankruptcy is too often not kept to compare closed cases fairly.

Outcome by court and division

95 of the 20,640 companies in NACE division 71 have a parent company abroad. Main parent countries: France (18), Netherlands (17) and Luxembourg (13). Together they employ 8,556 of the division's 39,215 FTE: 22%, against 14% for Belgium as a whole.

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €153.6m awarded 3,593 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Onderzoeksproject
  • Federal transfers 175.0m amount as published 112 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Toelage aan de IVZW MYRRHA. Constructie fase 1 - MINERVA
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €263,742 paid 35 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Unnamed in the register
  • EU budget €305.8m attributed share 109 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Horizon Europe
  • EU research €325.1m EU contribution 154 recipients · 2007 to 2027 · largest: Horizon 2020

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Activities of building architects

Balance sheet and result. 7.6% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. 19.7% of the annual accounts close with a loss, against 26.7% in Belgium. Return on equity of 19.4% is above Belgium's 15.9%.

Bankruptcies. In 12 months, 1.3 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 76% of the 88 NACE divisions. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.1% is below Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. In 12 months, 5.5 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 64% of the 87 NACE divisions. 55.3% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Half of the companies are younger than 10.6 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 34.2% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 272 of the 2,072 FTE: 13.1%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 47.8% in financial year 2020 to 52.0% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €12,574 in financial year 2020 to €16,489 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 06-11-2026 05:30.

Method and sources

Every company registered today counts under its main activities in the KBO. Establishment units do not count. Staff counts once, under the employer's first main activity, from its latest accounts and only where it fits the staff costs. The count follows the NACE 2025 classification, the version in which code 71111 exists.

The bankruptcies over five years count only companies still registered today, because the activity of a company that left the register is not kept. So they are fewer than the bankruptcies of those years, and the figure is not a probability for the future. Over twelve months the count is nearly complete, because a bankrupt company stays registered while its bankruptcy runs. A company with more than one main activity counts in each of those sectors.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other NACE divisions rests on an overview of every division, counted again each night. Each division is counted in the version of the NACE classification in which it exists. A standing such as "more than in 80%" compares with the other divisions that have the figure. A division's bankruptcy probability is the median over its companies with a score. Belgium here counts the 1,276,581 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 698,987 registrations publish no activity.

Each median is the value of the middle company, computed over the annual accounts of financial year 2025, and is shown only from 30 accounts. A share (loss-making, negative equity) counts that year's accounts with that trait. Accounts are late when they are filed after the statutory deadline. The direction per financial year follows the companies still registered today. Missing or 90 days late counts the companies with accounts missing today, or whose latest were filed more than 90 days after the deadline. The dossier follows the same rule.