The state-owned telco wants to sell more than half of its remaining property portfolio by 2035
Belgium’s Proximus has announced it intends to sell off more than half of its remaining real estate over the next ten years. The estate up for potential comprises More than 500 buildings, with a total area of over half a million square metres. The remaining 350 or so buildings the telco are either core to operations, some of this physically, or not attractive for sale, the head of Proximus Real Estate told L’Echo.
The operator is remaining tight-lipped about how much revenue this may generate but the operator’s data sale give some clue as to what sort of prices Belgian property is getting if you look at land value only. In October 2024, Proximus announced the sale of its data centre business to Belgium-based service provider Datacenter United for an enterprise value of €128 million. The transaction was completed on 28 February 2025. The sale included four data centres located in Evere, Mechelen, and Machelen, encompassing Proximus-owned real estate at the Evere and one Machelen site.
These facilities offered a combined capacity of approximately 11 MW and served both Proximus’s internal IT applications and B2B housing and hosting services for enterprise customers, according to reports at the time. The sale was part of Proximus’s strategy to generate €500 million from non-core asset divestments by 2027.
Proximus wants to ditch bricks and mortar to concentrate on finding 5G and fibre infrastructure and already half of all buildings are connected to its network across Belgium, technically leaving a gap that can be filled. The operator argues that the big circuit-switched exchanges are being replaced by smaller footprint multiservice fibre kit negating the requirement for so much property.
How the sale will work
According to the reports, over the next five years, the most attractive buildings will be sold first, and the first batch of around 100 properties will go on sale next week. Then, twice a year, auctions will be held where property developers can register to submit redevelopment plans for the buildings. Proximus reckons it is a very diverse portfolio, ranging from a large building of 30,000 square metres next to Mons railway station, to a historic property in Veurne, and a building near Flagey in Ixelles – one of the most expensive residential areas in the country, according to L’Echo.
Some buildings will be leased back by Proximus post-sale. “That’s especially attractive for property developers: they can plan the building’s redevelopment while still receiving rental income in the meantime,” said Cuveele.
In April, Proximus sold its headquarters next to Brussels North station to property developer Nextensa for €62.5 million, after years of negotiations. This was a good deal under the €143 million that Immobel had offered in 2022, though that deal ultimately fell through at the last moment, according to the report.
