Ziggu Research · Belgium and Luxembourg · Surveys from August 2019 to August 2026
Homebuyer NPS Study 2026
What 1 936 Net Promoter Score answers from buyers of newly built homes said about their developer, collected through the developers’ own client portals: the score, the shape behind it, how it moved over time and along the project, and how it compared with the sector in 2017 and with public reviews.
About the data. This study is based on anonymised and aggregated survey data from the Ziggu platform. Ziggu cannot see personal data at all: every figure on this page was computed on anonymised, aggregated records. A property developer’s portal is only accessible to Ziggu when the developer explicitly grants access, a setting that has to be switched on in the application. No developer, project or person is identified anywhere on this page.
Buyers of newly built homes who were asked the recommendation question through their developer’s client portal gave a Net Promoter Score of +9 on the standard definition, and +46 on the European definition that counts an 8 as a promoter. In Ziggu’s own survey of the Belgian sector in 2017, the same question scored −42 and −13 respectively.
Between August 2019 and August 2026, property developers using Ziggu sent 26 427 forms to their buyers through the client portal, and 68,3% of those forms were answered. Among them were 1 936 answers to a Net Promoter Score question about the developer, from 1 320 different buyers. This page reports that question and nothing else: the other question types in the module are described in the method section and deliberately left out of the findings.
Two other Ziggu studies sit next to this one. The Belgian Homebuyer Survey 2017 asked the same recommendation question to 242 buyers across the sector, before any client portal existed. The Google Review Study 2026 measured what the public record of reviews says about 329 Belgian developers. Finding 5 puts the three side by side.
The figures at a glance
| Finding | Value | Base |
|---|---|---|
| Net Promoter Score, standard (9–10 promoter, 0–6 detractor) | +9 | n = 1 936 |
| Net Promoter Score, European (8–10 promoter, 0–5 detractor) | +46 | n = 1 936 |
| Promoters, standard | 30,8% | n = 1 936 |
| Passives, standard | 47,5% | n = 1 936 |
| Detractors, standard | 21,7% | n = 1 936 |
| Mean recommendation score (0–10) | 7,46 | n = 1 936 |
| Share of all answers that were exactly 8 | 29,5% | n = 1 936 |
| Forms answered | 68,3% | n = 26 427 |
| NPS in the project’s first year, standard | +16 | n = 550 |
| NPS in the project’s fourth year, standard | +3 | n = 177 |
| Sector NPS in 2017, standard (Belgian Homebuyer Survey) | −42 | n = 242 |
| Sector NPS in 2017, European | −13 | n = 242 |
Method
The source is the Forms module of the Ziggu platform, through which a property developer can send questionnaires to the buyers of a project. The study covers every developer using a multi-unit product across Belgium and Luxembourg, and every feedback form those developers sent between August 2019 and 28 August 2026: 26 427 forms, of which 18 055 (68,3%) were answered. The data was read from an anonymised analytics copy of the platform in which question wording, free-text answers and personal details are not visible.
Only one question type is used in the findings: the Net Promoter Score question, a 0-to-10 scale on how likely the buyer is to recommend the developer. It is the only question type whose subject is fixed by the type itself, which matters because the wording is anonymised. The module also holds 41 928 answers to satisfaction, opinion-scale and yes-or-no questions; they point in the same direction as the NPS answers, but because a developer can use those question types for anything from finishing choices to planning preferences, this study cannot be certain they concern the developer, and leaves them out.
Two definitions are reported throughout. The standard NPS counts 9 and 10 as promoters and 0 to 6 as detractors. The European variant counts 8 to 10 as promoters and 0 to 5 as detractors; several survey providers use it because respondents in Belgium and the Netherlands tend to express “excellent” as an 8 and rarely give 9 or 10. Both are given with their definition so the reader can choose the benchmark. Project age is the time between the creation of the project on the platform and the answer, a rough proxy for the stage of the buyer journey. Percentages are rounded to one decimal, so a column may not total exactly 100. Every figure was computed by script on the raw answer records.
Finding 1
What score did buyers give their developer?
Of 1 936 answers, 30,8% scored 9 or 10 and 21,7% scored 0 to 6, a standard Net Promoter Score of +9. The largest group by far sat in the middle: 47,5% gave a 7 or an 8, and the single most common answer was an 8 (29,5%). The mean score was 7,46.
The shape matters as much as the number. Almost half of all buyers landed in the passive band, which a standard NPS counts as zero. That is the exact group that public review platforms never see: reviews are written by the delighted and the furious, and this middle stays silent there. Here it answered, and it answered “fine”.
Every answer to a question of type Net Promoter Score (0 to 10), counted per score value, across all forms in scope. The exact wording is set by each developer and is not visible in the anonymised data.
n = 1 936 answers · 1 320 buyers
- Detractors 421 of 1 936 · 21,7%
- Passives 919 of 1 936 · 47,5%
- Promoters 596 of 1 936 · 30,8%
Number of answers at each score. Standard definition: 0 to 6 detractors, 7 and 8 passives, 9 and 10 promoters.
| Score | Answers | Share | Standard group | European group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 34 | 1,8% | Detractor | Detractor |
| 1 | 18 | 0,9% | Detractor | Detractor |
| 2 | 24 | 1,2% | Detractor | Detractor |
| 3 | 28 | 1,4% | Detractor | Detractor |
| 4 | 34 | 1,8% | Detractor | Detractor |
| 5 | 147 | 7,6% | Detractor | Detractor |
| 6 | 136 | 7,0% | Detractor | Passive |
| 7 | 348 | 18,0% | Passive | Passive |
| 8 | 571 | 29,5% | Passive | Promoter |
| 9 | 360 | 18,6% | Promoter | Promoter |
| 10 | 236 | 12,2% | Promoter | Promoter |
| Total | 1 936 | 100% | NPS +9 | NPS +46 |
Finding 2
How much does the definition change the score?
A great deal, because of where the answers pile up. On the standard definition the score was +9. On the European definition, which moves the 8 into the promoter group and the 6 into the passive group, it was +46: 60,3% promoters against 14,7% detractors. The 37-point gap is almost entirely the 571 buyers who answered 8.
This is not a technicality. Survey providers have long documented that respondents in Belgium and the Netherlands use the 8 the way an American respondent uses the 9 or 10, and a benchmark from another market will therefore flatter or punish a Belgian score depending on the definition. Both are reported here, and any comparison should name which one it uses.
The same 1 936 answers regrouped: standard counts 9–10 as promoters and 0–6 as detractors; European counts 8–10 as promoters and 0–5 as detractors. Passives are the remainder in both.
n = 1 936 / 1 936
Share of detractors (lightest), passives and promoters (darkest) under each definition.
| Definition | Detractors | Passives | Promoters | NPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard (0–6 / 7–8 / 9–10) | 421 (21,7%) | 919 (47,5%) | 596 (30,8%) | +9 |
| European (0–5 / 6–7 / 8–10) | 285 (14,7%) | 484 (25,0%) | 1 167 (60,3%) | +46 |
Finding 3
How did the score move over the years?
Once the volume was large enough to read, from 2022 on, the yearly standard NPS moved between −8 (2023) and +13 (2024), with 2025 at +9 and the first eight months of 2026 at +6. The earliest years, with a few dozen answers, scored higher (+38 in 2021) and describe early adopters rather than a trend.
Standard NPS per calendar year of the answer date. Eight answers from 2020 are included in the total but not shown separately.
n per year in the table
| Year | Answers | Promoters | Detractors | Mean score | NPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 58 | 26 | 4 | 8,28 | +38 |
| 2022 | 191 | 58 | 37 | 7,46 | +11 |
| 2023 | 234 | 51 | 70 | 6,86 | −8 |
| 2024 | 625 | 201 | 120 | 7,61 | +13 |
| 2025 | 564 | 173 | 123 | 7,49 | +9 |
| 2026 (to 28 Aug) | 256 | 83 | 67 | 7,34 | +6 |
The mix of developers changes every year. Each year’s score reflects which developers were surveying which projects at that moment, so year-on-year movement is not a like-for-like trend. The stable reading is the band: since 2022, between −8 and +13.
Finding 4
Did the score change as the project went on?
Yes, downward, and gently. Answers given in the project’s first year on the platform scored a standard NPS of +16; in the second year +8, in the third +4, in the fourth +3. The small group of answers from the fifth year onward scored +16 again on 58 answers.
The direction is the same one Ziggu found twice before with different instruments: satisfaction that fell from the sales phase to the construction phase in the 2017 survey, and reviews that turned mostly negative once the topic was aftercare in the 2026 review study. What differed here was the depth. Surveyed through the portal, the score thinned out over the years but never turned negative.
Standard NPS grouped by the number of full years between the project’s creation on the platform and the answer date. Five answers that predate their project record are excluded from this table.
n = 1 931 / 1 936
Standard NPS by project age at the time of answering. Bars scaled to the first-year value.
| Project age at answer | Answers | Promoters | Detractors | NPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First year | 550 | 193 | 106 | +16 |
| Second year | 666 | 198 | 146 | +8 |
| Third year | 480 | 132 | 113 | +4 |
| Fourth year | 177 | 51 | 45 | +3 |
| Fifth year and later | 58 | 19 | 10 | +16 |
Project age is a proxy, not a phase. The clock starts when a developer creates the project on the platform, which may be before the sale or during construction. It orders the answers roughly along the journey; it does not say which milestone a buyer had reached.
Finding 5
How does this compare with 2017, and with public reviews?
In Ziggu’s Belgian Homebuyer Survey 2017, 242 buyers across the sector gave their developer a standard NPS of −42, or −13 on the European definition. Buyers surveyed through a client portal in 2019 to 2026 gave +9 and +46. The gap is 51 points on the standard definition and 59 on the European one, and it widens on the European scale because the most common 2017 answer was a 5, which stays a detractor under both definitions, while the most common answer today is an 8.
The Google Review Study 2026 shows why a survey and a review platform tell different stories about the same sector. In 2 971 public review texts, 89,0% awarded one star or five and 1,4% three: the public record is made of extremes. In these surveys, 47,5% of buyers sat in the middle band. Reviews measure reputation, the public trace of the strongest feelings; surveys measure experience, including the large majority that never writes a review.
Three studies with their own bases, methods and populations, placed side by side. No figure from one study is restated as a figure of another.
bases per study in the table
| Belgian Homebuyer Survey 2017 | Google Review Study 2026 | Homebuyer NPS Study 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who answered | 242 Belgian new-build buyers, self-selected | 2 971 public review texts on 329 Belgian developers | 1 320 buyers surveyed through their developer’s portal |
| Response | Online call, self-selected | Self-selected, 89,0% at the extremes | 68,3% of forms answered |
| Recommendation score, standard | −42 | not measured | +9 |
| Recommendation score, European | −13 | not measured | +46 |
| Middle group | 42,1% passives | 1,4% three stars | 47,5% passives |
| Movement along the journey | Satisfaction 76,4% at sale, 54,7% during construction | 66,1% negative once the topic was aftercare | NPS +16 in year one, +3 in year four |
The 51 points are an association, not an effect. The two surveys are nine years apart and describe different populations: the whole sector in 2017, and buyers of developers who chose to run a client portal in 2019 to 2026. Sector evolution, the kind of developer that adopts a portal, and the portal itself all sit inside that gap, and this study cannot separate them.
What this study does not show
- It is not a sector measurement. Every buyer in this study was a customer of a developer using Ziggu, and was surveyed through that developer’s portal. The 2017 survey is the sector benchmark; this study is not.
- The questions were configured by the developers. What was asked, when and to whom differed per developer, and the wording is not visible in the anonymised data. The NPS question type is the one constant.
- Answers were not evenly spread. Some developers surveyed far more buyers than others. The headline score was checked for robustness by removing the largest single contributor; it moved by less than one point.
- Other question types were left out on purpose. The 41 928 satisfaction, opinion-scale and yes-or-no answers point the same way as the NPS answers, but their subject cannot be verified and they are not used.
- Project age is a proxy. It orders answers along the journey without identifying the construction phase.
- Two definitions, one dataset. The standard and European scores describe the same answers; quoting one without its definition misleads.
- Ziggu is the author. This is our own platform data, published by a company that sells the portal these surveys ran through. Definitions and bases are on this page so the figures can be checked rather than taken on trust.
Citing this research
Ziggu (2026). Homebuyer NPS Study 2026. Analysis of 1 936 Net Promoter Score answers from 1 320 buyers of newly built homes in Belgium and Luxembourg, collected through client portals between August 2019 and August 2026.
