Energy performance regulations for buildings are continuously updated. Projections within the future are being made, fixing now what will be the standards for new buildings for the following decades. The construction sector itself is also evolving, trying not only to follow those new rules, but often trying to look ahead, developing, testing and launching today the prototypes of tomorrow’s buildings and components. To optimise public and private decision making, one has to analyse both the current status as well as the ongoing evolutions and the interactions between the market and the regulatory framework. Within this scope, analyses are conducted in Flanders on the EPBD-database, which contains detailed data on all new residential buildings since 2006. The analysis presented in this paper shows the impact and importance of specific regulations and incentives. In spite of the tightening regulations, huge discrepancies remain visible between a small yet increasing group of low energy, and passive house ‘pioneers’ and premium hunters, as opposed to a trailing group, flirting with the legally imposed limits. The analysis of the data therefore proves the role of as well as some challenges for future decision making, while quantifying the real status and evolutions of the building sector.