CBI IMMO was founded in 1975 by the late Willem Goffaux and was active in new construction development until 1988. After Willem Goffaux’ passing, his daughter Ingrid Goffaux and associate Frank Laporte continued the business and converted it into a real estate broker agency in Strombeek-Bever. Throughout the years and with the arrival of third associate Kurt Vermandel, CBI IMMO expanded its local agency network into four offices in Strombeek-Bever, Vilvoorde, Grimbergen and Meise-Wemmel. Each year, the CBI IMMO team closes +/- 300 real estate sale and rent transactions, primarily in the region just north of Brussels.

“During the past months, we got to know Frank, Ingrid and Kurt and we almost immediately felt an instant match. Just like Dewaele, they clearly choose for an independent agency network rather than a franchising structure, allowing them to guarantee the quality of its services to the customer, as well as to foster the connection and maximum care for their coworkers, agents and employees.” Sofie Spriet, CEO Dewaele Vastgoedgroep

Family ties

With this integration, Dewaele chooses for a team of 8 with clear family ties. Current business owner Ingrid Goffaux at the time took over the reign of her late father Willem Goffaux and also her sister, Dominique Goffaux, is part of the team. Associate Frank Laporte equally passed on his passion for real estate to his daughter Olivia, one of the real estate agents at CBI IMMO since already 8 years.

“Apart from family ties with some of our team members, we are actually one big family with our full CBI-team, who has been working together for many years and forms a very compatible whole. Being able to maintain this family character was a crucial item in our integration discussions with Dewaele. However, we immediately felt that Dewaele – recognized as a Great Place to Work – was one of the few large organizations who without a doubt managed to put this family feeling into practice on a daily basis. The fact that we can now merge our experience of many years and our local expertise with the support of one of the most innovative players in the industry, means that we will be able to even better serve our customers in the future.” Ingrid Goffaux, Co-owner CBI IMMO

From the Netherlands to Brussels

Geographically, CBI IMMO’s four agencies (Strombeek-Bever, Vilvoorde, Grimbergen and Meise-Wemmel) are a perfect match with Dewaele’s current work area, having already two agencies in the main Brussels’ area. Dewaele is also active in center city Mechelen, whereas the Puurs agency covers the Klein-Brabant region.

More stable prices

Vlaams-Brabant is characterized by a very diverse demography in all market segments, because of the capital’s proximity and of the fact that many people may want to work but not necessarily live in Brussels. Like in many other regions, the area north of the capital shows that real estate prices in most market segments have somewhat normalized and stabilized during the last half year.

"Offer and purchase prices exceeding the asking price has become much less frequent than before. Solid pressure remains on prices for apartments up to 250.000 euro or houses up to 500.000 euro, as demand continues to exceed offer, but for example villas in the higher price category (+1 million euro) are getting into rougher waters. These often still have to be renovated and this segment therefore sells less quickly and often only after a price correction." Frank Laporte, Co-owner CBI IMMO

The Vlaams Brabant rental market however is in full swing. Due to the higher interest rates, people switch to rental housing.

From organic growth to focus on takeovers

Long gone is the time that Dewaele was writing a mere West-Flemish story. The family company – which started back in 1984 with one agency in Bruges – gradually built its network according to the oil spot principle: opening new agencies, anchoring them locally, and expanding further from thereon. In 2018, the counter showed 25 agencies, the group doubled that number in 5 years’ time to 52 agencies. Of the 27 additional agencies, 23 were the result of a takeover.

“At the end of 2014, our organically evolved agency network housed 25 real estate locations. At that time, we put a 3-year hold on office growth in order to take the time for internal professionalization and for rolling out new real estate services. This is when we built our own real estate software, developed unique marketing algorythms for full automatic real estate ads, launched our first real estate insurance services and our online do-it-yourself platform Soldandset.be, while also working hard on a professional HR-management within our organization. That solid basis enabled us from 2018 on to resume agency growth at a high pace, with takeovers in the provinces of Antwerp, Brussels, East-Flanders, Limburg and now also Vlaams-Brabant. As a lifelong partner in living and entrepreneuring, we want to be active all over Flanders and Brussels.” Sofie Spriet, CEO Dewaele Vastgoedgroep

Dewaele Vastgoedgroep – now already a dazzling 310-member team and 52 agencies strong – aims to have 70 real estate locations in Flanders and Brussels by 2025.