Van Orley International Student House

[Nicol Allphin]

HomestayHost Family

If you are looking to immerse yourself in the lifestyle of a Belgian and improve your French or Dutch, then staying with a host family is the ideal option for you! All our host families live close to university and speak English.

What does the homestay include?

Independent Housing

To book your accommodation in Brussels, the Brussels School of Governance recommends HousingAnywhere, the international housing platform for mobile students and interns. Through HousingAnywhere you can contact the advertisers directly. Sign up here to receive a Vesalius College (now Brussels School of Governance) VIP profile and priority access to all rooms, studios and apartments available in Brussels and in 300+ cities:

Important: before renting a room, please ensure that domiciliation (registration at the Town Hall) is possible.

Please read the HousingAnywhere T&C's carefully for further details.

Please note that HousingAnywhere is an independent platform from our institution. Therefore, BSoG is not responsible for the contract and housing conditions.

You might want to find a room close to campus. While there are some possibilities to do so, there may not be enough rooms available due to the increasing amount of requests. Also the rent might be more expensive than in other areas. This section will give you a short description of the different areas in Brussels where you can find a room that is not too far away from Campus. Note that some areas might be further than the others in terms of distance, but it could be a better choice if you have a direct access to the Campus. Brussels has 19 districts that are called "communes". The school is located in the district called Ixelles, which is at the border of Etterbeek.

Saint-Gilles tends to be popular too for young urban people, even though it is a little bit further to commute to campus. Students who already know Brussels do love it and recommend this area: it has a very rich and artistic lifestyle, beautiful architecture and is very close to the centre of the city. Saint-Gilles is very similar to Ixelles in many ways. Historically it is known as being the cradle of socialist movements and workers movements in Brussels, so it still has a feel of having intellectuals and political places.

Forest, which is next to Saint-Gilles, is getting more popular due to the high rent in Saint-Gilles, and a lot of young people and young couples are moving to this area. Although it takes a little longer time to commute to the school, it is still popular among our students because it is the green area, walking distance to Saint-Gilles and it has a direct commute to the centre.

Auderghem and Watermael-Boitsfort are known for being green and quiet. They have an easy commute to the campus which makes them a perfect match for students who want to concentrate on their studies, enjoy outdoors activities and wish to live in a French speaking environment. Watermael-Boitsfort's centre is very charming and still has the look of the village it used to be. Both districts do have direct access to big parks, woods and forest.

The two Woluw are quite popular among comfortable Middle Class. Large buildings (built after the 1950's), large avenues, green areas and very easy to commute to the centre or to the campus by metro or tram. It attracts people willing to live in a modern architecture and quiet environment.

Saint-Josse is known as the smallest district of Brussels, the poorest and the one with the most nationalities (more than hundred). It is very well situated near the centre of the city with metro and bus for easy commute to nearly any other part ofBrussels. It has a lot of different faces: the EU Bubble is also extending to this area, there are five stars hotels but also multicultural streets with colourful shops.

The monthly rent for a furnished room is around maximum 500 EUR/550 EUR depending on the size and level of comfort. It can go up to 700 EUR (for more luxury options). Charges, such as phone, utilities, Internet, etc. are not always fully included and may result in additional monthly fees.

Those two conditions are essential if you are a Study Abroad Student. It is possible to find ads for cheaper rooms but usually the reasons are that the services charges (utilities) are not included or the room is not fully furnished, or because the contract is for a period of 12 months or longer. Please note that contracts for a short-term lease tend to increase the price. If you are based in Brussels for a short amount of time, you might want to explore these options, but for the Study Abroad students, the rooms under the short-term contract are not recommended.

Sources

There're a lot of online resources: from specific websites and Facebook groups

There're also rooms available in International students houses.

The complete list with links is to be find in the Appendix (see below).

The idea of being chosen by other flatmates can be appealing as it seems to increase the chances to bond and make friends with the flatmates. However, we strongly advise our students to only sign a contract directly with the landlord. Here are some issues that we have seen on sub-lease contracts:

Amount

Landlords usually request 1 month of rent as a deposit for a short term contract (i.e. up to 6-month rental period) and 2-month for a longer term contract (i.e. up to 12 months).

Apartments for 3 years and longer do have a rule of a 3-month deposit maximum.

U-Residence (Limited Availability)

This is a brand new facility containing single and double rooms on the VUB campus, across the street from the school: www.u-residence.be.

This residence takes students on a first-come, first-served basis and also offers hotel rooms for very short visits.

Jump Away

Fully-furnished and equipped shared international student flats located near campus: (derek...@jumpaway.eu)

We advise students to arrive well before the start of their courses in order to arrange their housing. Arrive at least two or three weeks in advance, or visit sometime in the summer and book a room then.

It is risky to make a choice of accommodation from abroad, without having viewed at least a few rental units personally. Most private landlords use a contract in Dutch, it is important to understand the contract before signing it. According to Belgian law, a contract once signed, cannot be terminated before it expires. Moreover, most landlords prefer to rent to students they have met personally.

In Brussels KU Leuven works with BRIK, a service desk for students in Brussels who manage the Van Orley international Student House for short stay accommodation and several other residences for longer stay.

Most local and international students look for accommodation on the private housing market. Student accommodation is managed by the Housing Services on the different campuses.

When you are looking for student accommodation, beware of fraudulent advertisements on the internet. Fake landlords are renting out non-existent accommodation. Other imposters use stolen identities to rent out existing accommodation. They target international students in particular.

The rental agreement will specify certain things: the amount of the security deposit, the duration, the rental fee, notice period(s), obligations, rights, prohibitions, etc. A contract is binding, so once it has been signed there is no backing out of it.

Keep in mind that you might be required to pay a deposit (max. 2 months). The landlord can request you to open a joint bank account for the deposit, which will be returned to you upon departure if no damage has been ascertained to the room or its furniture. The deposit should never be considered as payment for the rent!

Thirty years ago, fresh out of A-100 and on our first tours, my classmate Matt Bryza was serving in Poznan, Poland, and my wife, Margret Bjorgulfsdottir, and I were in Copenhagen. Matt and I had been friends in grad school at Fletcher and were eager to get together. Since Matt was serving in Poland in the bad old Iron Curtain days, he frequently went to decompress in West Berlin, so we decided to meet up there over Veterans Day weekend in 1989.

The journey got off to an inauspicious start. On the train from Copenhagen to West Berlin, an East German border guard took my diplomatic passport, barked something unintelligible and disappeared. Having seen too many spy thrillers, I thought this was it, we would be whisked away in darkness. But instead, he simply returned with deutsche marks in hand to reimburse me for a visa fee I should not have paid as a diplomat.

Without much thought, two American diplomats joined the young West Berliners on top of the wall. The West Berliners were taunting the East German guards, jumping onto the east side and then climbing back up on the wall as the guards, machine guns in hand, approached them. Thankfully, the East German guards did not fire as they had been prone to do previously when East Berliners daringly tried to flee.

I recall the lengthy lines at automatic cash dispensers as East Berliners collected the 100 DM they were entitled to upon arriving in the West. At border crossing points you could see Trabant car after Trabant car among crowds of people walking into the West, many with joyful tears streaming down their cheeks. As we strolled the streets, we ran into perhaps the only German we knew, another Fletcherite. Overcome with emotion, he uncharacteristically hugged us. That is the kind of day it was.

My phone began to ring. Ambassador Dick Barkley had heard Schabowski and wanted us to inform Washington. Then the head of the U.S. mission in West Berlin [known as USBER], Harry Gilmore, called to say that the mayor had told him plans were ready, since Schabowski had advised him a week earlier to expect visitors soon.

Imre Lipping, my deputy, arrived to compare notes. We agreed there were unanswered questions. There could be a long wait for passports, if only because millions would have to be issued. But if the authorities processed applications as promised, the question would arise what purpose the wall retained. Unless the GDR acknowledged it was becoming an anachronism, many would conclude liberalization was only a gambit that could be withdrawn as quickly as it was introduced.

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