One more moving to Brussels :)

[ShutterNutter]

Hi everyone! Found this site a few days ago and I see that some of you live in Belgium :-)

My husband has been transferred to Brussels for 3 years, which is great and we are looking to move early next year. We have 2 little girls 5 & 6 .
We have been in Brussels for 8 days now school & house hunting. I tell you it has not been easy. We just can't decide were to live. After looking at quite a few houses we have come down to two.

The first house we are deciding on is in Ixelles near all the shops, it has no garden (not even a little patch) and no parking which is a bit of a pain driving round and round trying to find one after a long day of work. On the plus side the house is near Tenbosch Park and another big play ground that I can easily walk the girls to, also all the restaurants and shops.

House number 2 is in Watermal-Boitsfort, it is bigger and newly renovated, plenty of parking but the nearest shop (which is 2 supermarkets) is 1.5km away. Not crazy far, but far enough not to make the area very exciting or have anything fun to walk to.
One of the things that appeal to me coming to Europe is the fact that you don't have to get into your car just to get milk. I really enjoy walking and was looking forward to be able to walk to the corner store to get milk or whatever. Also living in a quaint, pretty european style street is very appealing.
DH understandably wants it to be an easy commute to work (Auderghem) and back and to the girl's school (we are deciding between BEPS and ISB) and the Watermal house would certainly provide that. It also has a garden for the girls. The downside is that this house is just surrounded by big offices and buildings and some embassies.

So, after all that rambling ... having lived in Brussels for a while, would you go for the more lively location and walkable locations, but smaller house and no garden, or the bigger house with a garden but not very exciting surroundings but closer to work and schools?

I probably won't have car for the first 6 moths or so but will probably get one later. DH will have car and will be traveling quite a bit with his job. I'll be a stay-at-home mom.

Thanks for any input!!

Signed, indecisive Crazy Rambler ;-)

I don't know anyone in Sint Pieters Leeuw. There are only 3 schools in the village, although more in the wider gemeente. For a 4 year old, the best school is often the nearest one to home.

Here is a map which shows all the Flemish schools in Brussels and several of the gemeenten surrounding Brussels, including Sint Pieters Leeuw. It's quite useful to look at it each time you look at a house, to see which schools are nearest.

batchgeo.com/map/0ab9b04d71432cbcbb02ab479275d4cf

Good afternoon,
My cousin visited today this house. He told it it is very nice in a very beautiful neighborhood. He also told me it is close to E19 and a bus stop that takes you to Vilvoorde and from there by train you can reach Brussels. Does anyone has any feedback on this area?
I also read today that Kampenhout and Wezembeek are good choices in terms of commuting

I forgot to thank you natation for your reply

Zimaroulis, where exactly are you talking about?? The place near E19? It sounds a bit far.

Kampenhout to Brussels? You are looking at a commute of an hour minimum into the centre of Brussels by de Lijn bus. It would be 30-40 minutes by de Lijn bus to the centre from Sint Pieters Leeuw, so personally if I had family in Sint Pieters Leeuw, I would prefer there as it's quicker into Brussels, plus you can get there by train from some of that area, no train in Kampenhout. I would expect a very small rental market there, just like in Sint Pieters Leeuw.

Wezembeek-Oppem? I would class that as being a suburb of Brussels, some people don't even realise it's actually in Vlaams Brabant! Houses only slightly cheaper than nearby WSP so houses out of price range, very limited choice of apartments under 800 euro, whereas WSP would have far greater range.

Look at this de Lijn map which shows buses and train lines from Vlaams Brabant into Brussels.

www.delijn.be/images/Netplan_Haltes_vervoergebiedBrussel_web_tcm7-16943.pdf

Sorry natation I forgot the link
This is the house
www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3520925&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1

Elewijt is in the middle of nowhere! It takes me 1h 15 mins to 1h30 mins to get into central Brussels dropping dd at school and getting the De Lijn bus from Nossegem which is much, much closer. They had some reasonably priced apartments in Evere when I looked last week. Near the bus/tram. Wezembeek is nice, but expensive.

I'd never even heard of Elewijt! 280 bus to Vilvoorde then train. Well that will be a minimum of an hour if you make the connections, so even worse than Kampenhout because there are 2 different modes of transport, both requiring their own tickets, so an added expensive. I'd only live out there if I had a company car 100% of the time, in fact you'll probably find most people there have 2 cars, it's such a small place, if you want your child to do after school activities, it is most likely going to involve driving, so even more expense.

That house would not be so expensive, were it not for the land around it. I wouldn't accept that house without the landlord agreeing to maintain the garden, that is going to be some garden to hand back if and when you leave in the same state you received it!

For 60 euro more per month, you could live in a leafy area of Brussels and get a 3 bed apartment. It seems like you want to live in the country, but the downfalls are the added commuting cost, the added transport cost, the limited opportunities for children.

www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3314466&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1

Don't misunderstand me I don't want to sound indecisive
I feel panic because my husband will be there next week and we have not been able so far to book any appointment to see any apt. Either they are rented or they tell us they cannot arrange a date from now for next week because by that time the place might have been rented. I am afraid that my husband will not find something as soon as I was expecting. Anyway I will try to focus on our initial choices, thank you for your understanding

I think you need to concentrate on making decisions such as :
language of schooling
getting a school place, before or in conjunction with finding accommodation
narrowing down search area for accommodation, otherwise you'll waste time looking and make it tons harder to find a school place
consider the following :
the further you live from work, the more time lost travelling
the further you live from work, the more costs that are involved
if you don't have a car, think about the consequences of how to get to work on public transport and how to get around for your social activities
add travel costs onto accommodation costs
open a bank account IMMEDIATELY
either get ready rental guarantee equivalent to 2 months rent OR arrange a guarantee from the bank (this service has a fee attached)
get ready proof of savings and income which you can hand immediately to potential landlords
most people take a few months finding somewhere to live, don't be disheartened if it takes longer than expected
most rental contracts start either 1st or 15th of month
even if you find a vacant property, expect at least a 2 week delay to set up rental contract, entry inspection, rental guarantee
never accept a fixed length contract without a "get-out" clause in it, if you need to leave you will still have to pay the rent for the full term of the contract, a standard 9 year contract is nearly always best

I have one more question please irrelevant with our so far subject.
Current we have a health insurance for our son. We are thinking of cancelling the contract before we go. Do you have one for your children while living in belgium or you consider the local public health system satisfying

The local public health system is based on you joining a scheme. This should be covered by your dh's employers. It is not free here. My dh's employer covers our Mutuelle cover - though we have to pay a small amount each year. Hospitalisation insurance is on top of that. My employer covers my dd and I, Dh/s covers him. If it was only him working, he would have to pay a premium to cover us both.

You should arrive with an EHIC card to cover you for the first few weeks. You should also arrive with a specific form which is issued by Greece for people moving abroad to another EU country which you give to the Mutuelle when you sign up. There's not much difference between Mutuelles here, many people choose on political grounds eg there's a Catholic Mutuelle and a Socialist Mutuelle and several neutral Mutuelles. We pay ?6.50 per adult per month so ?78 a year per adult. If you pay Belgian social security, you are obliged to join a Mutuelle and if you don't and you come into contact for example with a hospital, they enrol you in one anyway! Many Belgian employers offer free hospitalisation for their employees, sometimes dependants too, otherwise you might be able to pay a small extra supplement for dependants. Hospitalisation insurance in optional.

The health system here is excellent, although highly medicalised and Belgians seem to take an incredible amount of drugs for minor ailments.

Hallo ladies, my husband is for three weeks now in Belgium. He started working and signed his first six months contract. He is looking for renting a place but still nothing. Tomorrow he has planned a visit at below apartment
www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3574257&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1
However I don't know if this a safe area for a family to live and if schools are deprived. So far we are looking for apartments in many communes of Brussels
I would really appreciate your feedback on the above area

Well it's sort of the opposite of what you said you were looking for. Very built-up. Immediate area run-down BUT streets away from where the Fantastic Christmas market is, at other times of year, famous fish restaurants, a converted market hall called St Géry nearby which is quite a chic place to have a coffee. So it's a mix of cheap housing, expensive restaurants, fine landmarks. Well if you don't mind lack of huge open space - there a squares but that's it - and you like the buzz of city life on your doorstep, well it's a cool place to live.

I don't know much about the schools other than most of the communal ones are separated into maternelle and primaire there, so you would have a change of buildings at age 6 for communal system. Otherwise the nearest Catholic school is fondamental 2 1/2 to 12. Know a jolly teacher there but not currently in contact with her. All the French schools around there are rated the most deprived in Belgium on a scale of 1 to 20 - all the schools score 1 or 2. So expect a very immigrant population there, hopefully a nice mix of different nationalities and not one dominant one like in certain areas of Brussels.

Here is my latest school map for French schools.
batchgeo.com/map/1f1bf2b3b6e4ad41fe67c1a57d56a826

There are 2 Dutch language schools in the area too, 1 Catholic and 1 communal. I'd ask these schools how many speak Dutch first language, how many French, how many some other language. Dutch might work here if there are not too many French speakers in the school! But Brussels is overall 90% French so not so easy to be a Dutch speaker, usually the Dutch speakers also speak French in Brussels as most of daily life is in French.

Here is a map of Dutch schools.
chgeo.com/map/0ab9b04d71432cbcbb02ab479275d4cf

Look a famous building a few doors down!
www.bruxelles.be/artdet.cfm/4520

Well natation it is not what I expected either but things are quite difficult for us and my husband is not thinking clearly. Yesterday he was looking for apartments and houses on Aalst because of the train and today he sent me this apartment. I have explaind to him that we should concentrate on certain areas, there have to be some standards, we cannot just rent a cheap apt regardless of its location. Anyway I was expecting what you said about schools...
I will try to explain to him and tell him to cancel the visit.

Natation what about Sint-Jan-Berchmans school?

St Jan Berchmans is on the other side of central Brussels and the waiting list there will probably stretch as far as Athens thanks to all the Royal family's grandchildren currently there.

Actually I think the apartment area is quite cool and if it is a decent apartment and m2 it says it is (looks like it from the photos), it is a very very good price.

The advantage of the deprived schools is the amount of money currently being thrown at them! Just because the other children are poor and the school are is classed as deprived doesn't mean the school is bad. It matters what your own children achieve at school. Really don't let it put you off...... god Aalst is not a good idea at all, not just for commuting but also for integrations. You will find a Greek community in Brussels, you will find lots of people expatriated and instead of having close family bonds, they make close friendships with fellow expats / immigrants. Belgian society is very closed to outsiders. I would imagine Aalst has a very small immigrant population of perhaps a few Congolese or Moroccans who will probably all stick together and then the vast majority of Belgians who couldn't give you even a second of their day to care in the slightest about their neighbours, family is what matters to most Belgians.

batchgeo.com/map/0ab9b04d71432cbcbb02ab479275d4cf

Here's the page of activities of the nearest communal French maternelle to that house in central Brussels. The school has an awful full timetable, an impressive timetable, if they really do all those activities. From the photos, definitely multi-cultural. I'm quite attracted to that area now I've done a bit of hunting!
www.brunette.brucity.be/lacle/act.htm

Well natation that apartment turned out to be a scam
Anyway on saturday my husband will see the following apartment
www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3522981&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1
If it is good we will rent it, can you tell me about the area please and good schools near the apartment if you know any

A pretty nice area BUT be aware that there simply are not enough schools in this area, the population has expanded so much that schools cannot provide the number of places possible. I really would not accept that apartment without having a school place for September. Look at the school map.
batchgeo.com/map/1f1bf2b3b6e4ad41fe67c1a57d56a826

I still would go for this apartment which is cheaper in an area with school places and ideally situated for commuting into the centre of Brussels and also for commuting out of Brussels onto the R0.

www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3490716&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1

I went to Brussels for a w/e once. It was beige. Everyone was dressed in beige and everything in the shop windows was beige. I was dressed in red and green. People looked at me sidelong.

Thanks natation
Unfortunately that apartment has been rented for over one month now...
If we rent the apartment I will make sure my husband will apply for a school place for our son from next week onwards. Do you think we will have enough time to find one till September? Any particular school which you know is better?