cost of living

[Charmaine_Fernandes]

Hi ! I would like to know what is the cost of leasing an apartment in Brussels. What is the minimum BEF one must recieve for comfortable living in Brussles. How good is a compensation of 80K BEF

[imported_groovy]

Howdy,

I can tell you all about apartments as I've been looking myself for months. It's hard to find something nice and at the right price, but easier to find when living on your own or sharing with a partner.

As far as price is concerned go for something that is a third of your salery..that's the maximum of course! You can usually find a 1 bedroom between
14 000BF up to what ever you want.

As for the areas, Brussels centre. Convenient, but getting more and more pricey. Every foreigner and young Belgian wants to live in the centre for the moment.They're making huge efforts to clean the old places up, as they know they can ask very expensive prices for them.

Ixelles. The trendy area, but sometimes a little over rated as the housing is not thaaaat nice, I think. Chatelain is really cool. Lot's of nice bars and restaurants and it has some charm. Pricey though. But the advantage is that there are a huge community of English speaking people living in this area, so a little more comfortable when you don't know the language.

Etterbeek. Nice neighbourhood, especially around the Cinquatinare. Great park to have in the summer time. However La Chasse is a little dark and dirty. Place Jourdan is however becoming nicer and more popular place. Lots of Italian restaurants in this area as well.

Schaerbeek. A few nice areas and a few too foreign. Around the midi station the Schaerbeek train station you'll find a lot of Moroccan's. It's not the most safest feeling neighbourhoods. But the area between Shuman and Meiser I would definitely recommend. It's cheaper than Ixelles and Etterbeek, but just as nice. Very pleasant to live in.

St-Gilles. Not a 100% certain as I haven't spent that much time there. But I do know it's cheaper than Ixelles and still has some nice houses. It's also not that far form Ave Louise.

I would stay away from Anderlecht and Auderghem.

Hope this can help a little bit.

You can also make a deal with the landlord if things need painting or fixing before you sign the contract.
Most contracts here are either 3,6 or 9 years. Be careful B4 you sign, get it checked out by a friend or work. But if you live in the EU areas, you can often find contracts for a year.

Best of luck, but I'm sure you've already found something by now.

[Charmaine_Fernandes]

Thanks for all the effort and time taken to answer my query. It was very kind of you.Your information is very useful and I have kept it for reference.

Many thanks again.

Kind regards.
Charmaine

Originally posted by groovy:
Howdy,

I can tell you all about apartments as I've been looking myself for months. It's hard to find something nice and at the right price, but easier to find when living on your own or sharing with a partner.

As far as price is concerned go for something that is a third of your salery..that's the maximum of course! You can usually find a 1 bedroom between
14 000BF up to what ever you want.

As for the areas, Brussels centre. Convenient, but getting more and more pricey. Every foreigner and young Belgian wants to live in the centre for the moment.They're making huge efforts to clean the old places up, as they know they can ask very expensive prices for them.

Ixelles. The trendy area, but sometimes a little over rated as the housing is not thaaaat nice, I think. Chatelain is really cool. Lot's of nice bars and restaurants and it has some charm. Pricey though. But the advantage is that there are a huge community of English speaking people living in this area, so a little more comfortable when you don't know the language.

Etterbeek. Nice neighbourhood, especially around the Cinquatinare. Great park to have in the summer time. However La Chasse is a little dark and dirty. Place Jourdan is however becoming nicer and more popular place. Lots of Italian restaurants in this area as well.

Schaerbeek. A few nice areas and a few too foreign. Around the midi station the Schaerbeek train station you'll find a lot of Moroccan's. It's not the most safest feeling neighbourhoods. But the area between Shuman and Meiser I would definitely recommend. It's cheaper than Ixelles and Etterbeek, but just as nice. Very pleasant to live in.

St-Gilles. Not a 100% certain as I haven't spent that much time there. But I do know it's cheaper than Ixelles and still has some nice houses. It's also not that far form Ave Louise.

I would stay away from Anderlecht and Auderghem.

Hope this can help a little bit.

You can also make a deal with the landlord if things need painting or fixing before you sign the contract.
Most contracts here are either 3,6 or 9 years. Be careful B4 you sign, get it checked out by a friend or work. But if you live in the EU areas, you can often find contracts for a year.

Best of luck, but I'm sure you've already found something by now.