THE SHORT ANSWER
A typical heat pump project in Belgium lands at EUR 9,000 to EUR 18,000 in 2026, with a midpoint near EUR 13,500. Gross margin on that midpoint is usually 20 to 30 percent, or EUR 2,700 to EUR 4,050. Against a modelled cost per lead of EUR 100 to EUR 150 and 3 to 5 exclusive leads per signed customer, acquisition consumes roughly 6.7 to 25.9 percent of the gross margin on one job.
Job value is the number every other commercial decision divides into, which is why roughly right beats precisely wrong. This page gives a modelled band for heat pump work in Belgium in 2026, then does the arithmetic that makes a band useful: what it leaves as gross margin, and how much of that margin a customer costs to win.
The band is wide on purpose. What moves a project from one end to the other is whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source. Local context matters too: in Belgium, Flanders and Wallonia behave like two different auctions: Dutch-language clicks are more expensive because installer density is higher there.
The numbers, at a glance
Midpoint contract value: around EUR 13,500, inside a working band of EUR 9,000 to EUR 18,000 for heat pump work in Belgium
What is left after materials and labour: EUR 2,700 to EUR 4,050 of gross margin, being 20 to 30 percent of the midpoint contract
Lead spend per signed customer: EUR 250 to EUR 700, at 3 to 5 exclusive leads each costing EUR 100 to EUR 150
Margin consumed by acquisition: 6.7 to 25.9 percent of one job's gross margin, counting nothing from repeat or referral work
Where the heat pump number comes from in Belgium
Everything here is a complete installed job for a private household, excluding VAT and excluding competitively tendered work. Emergency repairs are excluded too: urgency prices on availability rather than on scope, and mixing the two produces an average that describes neither.
Inside that definition the spread comes from whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source. Belgium is a market of roughly 11.8 million people split across two language regions, which is the pool every one of those quotes is written into.
Around EUR 9,000 for the simple version of this job on an accessible property.
Around EUR 13,500 for the version most quotes describe, including the upgrades customers ask for once they have seen the first price.
Around EUR 18,000 once scope, access or specification all move in the same direction.
The Flemish renovation obligation is a standing source of large jobs
Since 2023, buyers of residential property in Flanders with a poor energy label have had to renovate to at least label D within five years of purchase. That converts a discretionary spend into a deadline, which is why renovation enquiries of every kind in Flanders cluster around recent property transactions. Energy measures are the obvious beneficiaries, but the effect reaches every trade, because a household that is already committed to works and living around them does the kitchen, the bathroom and the frames in the same window rather than spreading them over a decade. It pushes contract values up on both counts. Asking when the property was bought qualifies for budget, urgency and likely scope in a single question.
Subsidy paperwork is a cost line, so price it as one
Almost every heat pump market in Europe now runs a grant scheme, and almost every homeowner expects the installer to handle it. That work is real: eligibility checks, product registration, photographs, performance data and a submission that can take an hour or two per job, plus the cash flow cost when the grant reaches the customer months after you have been paid. Build it into the price rather than treating it as goodwill. The healthiest margins in this trade belong to installers who quote the gross price, show the grant as a separate line the customer will receive, and never discount against money they do not control.
Contract value against gross margin
Contract value is the figure contractors quote each other. Gross margin is the figure that pays wages. For heat pump work in Belgium the gap between them is 70 to 80 percent of the contract, so the EUR 13,500 midpoint leaves EUR 2,700 to EUR 4,050 behind.
Overheads, vehicles, insurance and the owner's own salary all come out of that, which means the money genuinely available to win the next customer is a fraction of the margin rather than the whole of it. Decide what share you will spend on acquisition before you look at any supplier price list. Established heat pump installers tend to land between 10 and 20 percent of gross margin. Businesses in a deliberate growth phase run at 30 and accept that payback arrives on the second job.
The emitters decide the price, not the heat pump
The unit is the most predictable part of a heat pump quote. What swings the contract is everything around it: a buffer tank, a new cylinder, upsized radiators or underfloor circuits, and the pipework to connect them. A house already running at low flow temperatures converts close to the bottom of the band. A house with panel radiators sized for a 70 degree boiler needs emitter work that routinely adds EUR 2,000 to EUR 6,000. Establish which of the two you are standing in before you put a number on paper, because the difference is larger than any discount you will ever be asked for.
The case against paid lead generation at this job value
The arithmetic on this page can point the other way, and pretending otherwise is how contractors lose a quarter. At EUR 2,700 to EUR 4,050 of gross margin on the midpoint job, acquisition stops being sensible somewhere above EUR 700 per signed customer, and the modelled figure sits at EUR 250 to EUR 700.
So test yourself before you test a supplier. If your median time to first call attempt is measured in hours, if you quote fewer than half the enquiries you receive, or if you are already turning work away, more volume will not help. In each of those cases the cheapest available improvement is internal and costs nothing per lead.
The same heat pump job, priced across the border
Two markets can have identical lead prices and completely different job values, which is why the two indices are kept apart. Belgium sits at 1.00 on the construction cost index. Converted to euro for comparison, heat pump work prices like this:
Belgium (index 1.00) - EUR 9,000 to EUR 18,000
Germany (index 1.06) - EUR 9,550 to EUR 19,100
France (index 0.98) - EUR 8,800 to EUR 17,650
the United Kingdom (index 1.02) - EUR 9,200 to EUR 18,350
Use the comparison for pricing intelligence rather than for arbitrage. A Belgian contractor quoting from a neighbouring country's list will be wrong on labour, on the standard specification and usually on the permitting effort as well.
The 6 percent VAT rate changes what the customer thinks the job costs
Belgium applies a reduced VAT rate of 6 percent to renovation work on private homes older than ten years, against a standard rate of 21 percent. On a EUR 12,000 project that is a difference of about EUR 1,800 in what the household actually pays, and it is the figure they compare between quotes. Two things follow. Establish the age of the dwelling before you quote, because applying the wrong rate is your liability rather than the customer's. And do your own margin arithmetic exclusive of VAT, because a contractor who mentally banks the inclusive figure is counting the tax authority's money as profit.
Working capital at this contract value
Job value determines how much cash the business needs, not just how much it earns. On a EUR 13,500 project, materials and subcontract labour typically leave the account two to five weeks before the final invoice is paid, which is EUR 6,100 of exposure per job before anything goes wrong.
The remedy is structural rather than clever: a deposit near EUR 4,050 at order, a stage payment against delivery, and a final invoice on handover rather than thirty days after it. It also functions as a qualification tool. A household that cannot pay a deposit on a EUR 13,500 project is not a household that will pay the balance.
Five numbers to pull from your own accounts this week
Median contract value across the last twenty signed heat pump jobs in Belgium, taken from invoices rather than from quotes.
Median gross margin on those same twenty, after materials and installation labour but before overheads.
Total enquiries received in the same period, counting the ones that never answered the phone, so the ratio is honest.
Median time from enquiry to first call attempt, which is the variable that moves cost per customer furthest.
Acquisition cost as a percentage of median gross margin. That single percentage is what you compare across suppliers, markets and years.
How these figures were built
These figures are a benchmark model, not a survey. They combine an industry base range observed across Western European home-improvement campaigns with a country multiplier for local auction pressure. Treat them as a band to negotiate against, not a quote. Job values here start from an industry band for heat pump and are scaled by a construction cost index for Belgium of 1.00 against a Benelux baseline of 1.00. That index tracks labour and materials, deliberately separate from the advertising auction multiplier used on our cost-per-lead pages, because the two move independently.
How Flock Leads prices this
Set against the margin numbers on this page, here is the actual price of buying exclusive enquiries rather than generating them:
Starter - 10 leads for EUR 750, which is EUR 75 per lead
Growth - 25 leads for EUR 1,750, which is EUR 70 per lead
Scale - 45 leads for EUR 2,925, which is EUR 65 per lead
Pro - 70 leads for EUR 4,340, which is EUR 62 per lead
Max - 90 leads for EUR 5,400, which is EUR 60 per lead
No retainer, no contract term, and no lead sent to a second business. Unused volume rolls over under the Flock Lead Promise.
Want leads like this in your pipeline?
Flock runs the campaigns, screens the enquiries and hands you only the ones that match your service area, job size and capacity. You pay per lead, not per month.
Book a 15-minute fit check | See lead package pricing
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
How much does a heat pump project cost in Belgium?
Between EUR 9,000 to EUR 18,000 for a private household in 2026, midpoint around EUR 13,500, excluding VAT and excluding competitively tendered work. Where a specific job lands depends on whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source.
Does this figure include VAT?
No. Every number here is exclusive of VAT, because rates on home improvement work vary by country, by measure and sometimes by the age of the property. Quote your customer inclusive if that is the local convention, but do your margin arithmetic exclusive, otherwise the tax looks like profit.
Why is the band so wide?
Because whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source genuinely swings the price that much. A narrow average would be more comforting and less true. The useful move is to establish where your own typical job sits inside the band, then price your marketing against that point rather than against the midpoint.
Is job value in Belgium rising or falling in 2026?
Material prices have largely stabilised after the volatility of the early decade, while installation labour remains the tighter constraint across most of Western Europe. The practical effect is that job values drift upward slowly and the labour component grows as a share of each quote. Re-check your own median twice a year rather than trusting a published figure.
What gross margin should I expect on heat pump work?
20 to 30 percent of contract value is the working band, which is EUR 2,700 to EUR 4,050 on the EUR 13,500 midpoint job. Below 20 percent you are either buying materials badly or quoting labour at a rate that does not cover a wet week.
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