Accommodation

So, anyone thinking about housing just yet? Hey, maybe some of us can rent an apartment all together, three or four bedroom apartment! Anyone interested?

I live in Brussels. I don't think we'll have any rooms available at that time but the best you can do is create your profile or look for a place on:

www.appartager.be (houses or flats to share)
www.vlan.be (general small ads)
www.xpats.com
brussels.fr.craigslist.org/

I would be very interested I know there are special houses just for stagiaires, my friend lived there but I don't have her e-mail any more and I don't know how to find it. I will be looking though and if I know something I'll let you know!!!!!!!!!

I am interested too in sharing a flat, either with male or female flatmates, I don't mind... these houses for stagiaires sound nice, but I guess they can accomodate only a small part of the 670 trainees... Let's try to find more info about them and see what we can get...

The houses were either in the Rue de deux Eglises or Rue Marie-Therese, at least I am looking at the map of Brussels and I think it was somewhere there. I stayed there for two nights with my friend, the house is 3min walking from the Commission, the rooms are great and I think they had something like 30-50 places cos they had a couple of houses. We were showed all of them since I was helping her to find accommodation, if you find somewhere housing offers in one of those streets could you please share it with me? I will try to google them as well, those houses were great cos all the stagiaires lived there together.

Yep, this "stagiaire house / camp" business sounds pretty cool (and fun). I'd also be in for that and don't care about the gender of the housemates. Please post here if anything comes up! This blog will be super helpful btw

http://www.traineesinbrussels.be/

OK, I'll be searching and get some answers on a house of four.

I sent some emails and got 2 rooms offers, they are still free so I guess it's necessary to book them soon, however they aren't really good for me, since I will be working in a DG which is far faaaaar away from other EU buildings and I have to live very close to the metro, otherwise it will take me hours to get to work. I don't know when to look - better already now, or in the end of August? Isn't it too early now? On all the internet pages there are no offers yet for October.

I found 2 rooms offers, one close to the EU buildings, but not good for me cos I will be working somewhere in the outskirts. The other one in the city center, so it's better, but the rooms are ugly.
Bibi any ideas where to look for rooms in the city center? And when? I want to live in the center close to the metro, since I will be working anyways in Beaulieu, so I will have to go by metro every day.

Where? You mean which website or which area is best?
For websites, the ones i gave you are the best ones I think. I'll try and think of others. Otherwise, in terms of areas, the city center (= stations Rogier, De Brouckère and Bourse) is not the best place I think. I don't mean that you shouldn't live there - it might be nice actually -, but that there are other nice places.

- For example, place Flagey (in the quarter of Ixelles) is a nice area, lots going on, a lot of students...but not very near the metro station. The nearest is station Porte de Namur and you need to take a bus for 5 min. But around Porte de Namur is quite nice actually and you would have to change only once to go to Beaulieu. Porte de Namur is also where the African quarter ("Matonge") is, so nice and cheap food! And there are plenty of shops and a cinema.
- Near station Ste Catherine should be quite cool too.
- In general, try and avoid living near Gare du Midi and Gare du Nord.
- The quarter of St Gilles is cool too (except when you get close to Gare du midi), near station Porte de Hal and Hotel des Monnaies. Lots of restaurants and bars... St Gilles is quite young too, even more relaxed than Ixelles maybe.
- Station Louise is not bad either, might be a bit more expensive though.

I live near the main Commission building already (station Schuman). It's quite a quiet area, though Place Jourdan nearby is nice (Best frites in Brussels supposedly but I don't agree...) and you are near a lot of things: Place Flagey (10 min), metro Schuman, Parc Cinquantenaire to go for a picnic or a run, etc.

Bourse is not good? I was aiming at Grand Place
When do you think is a good time to start searching?

No no, like I said, it should be nice: lots of bars, shops, etc. But not so many parks around (though in the winter maybe not so important) and it's very busy. But living there might also be very handy when going out, because you won't have to worry about how to get back home. So yeah, I'd say Bourse is ok too.

I'd say start looking for something now, slowly. Usually, when people leave a place, they have to tell their landowner two or three months in advance so I guess, some landowners are going to start looking for tenants for October in the coming month.

Yes, I was going to consider suitable locations for all. Great sites and directions Bibi, thank you - is it my impression or the Metro Network is like the one in Amsterdam, that is, very ok but stations are far from each other and there aren't that many? I'm asking because in Amsterdam I rode the bus and the tram much more often than the metro because it took one everywhere - what would you advise for a person living in Place Flagey, the student area and working nearby the Counsel of Ministers and the European Parliament?

I have to warn you that public transport in Bxl are not very good. The metro is generally fine and new lines have just been opened, though the panels telling you when the metro is arriving are not really working at the mo (and it's been like that for at least two months). The stations are not that far away from each other. You can probably walk from one station to the next in 15/20 min, I don't know if that's far according to your standards.
The thing about the buses and trams is that they can keep you waiting for a while. That's why I think the metro is generally thought of as more reliable.

I'd say the network as a whole is not very good if you compare to places like Berlin or Madrid. The price of a ticket now is about 1,70 euros (2 euros if bought ON the bus) or 30 euros/month if you're under 25 and 44 euros/month if you're over 25. You can also buy 10 trips tickets for about 12,3 euros. So the price factor could play a role in your decision too.

Place Flagey is nice, it's busier than around the institutions. It depends what your criteria are really. But there is a bus (the 60) going from Flagey to Schuman so it wouldn't take you that long to go from Flagey to work I think.

I made up my mind I want to live in the Place St. Gery now I only have to find a room there

Hi Bibi!
since you are the 'official housing advisor' on this forum , what would you suggest for someone like me who is going to work in Rue d'Arlon? What nice and not very expensive areas around there I should consider while looking for a flat? Do you think is possible to find something at walking distance (10-15 min) from there for a decent price? Or is it an expensive area and I am asking too much? Thanks a lot in advance!

Hi Ghiga
Well, I am going to be working in that area too (rue de la loi) and I live about 20 minutes from there (rue baron Lambert). So maybe you should have a look in the streets around there (I mean around baron lambert) because I know there are a few houseshares around and I don't think it would be too expensive.
I am in a houseshare myself (6 people) and there might be a free room beginning of October but it's nothing definite (I should find out by the end of the month) and it's quite expensive (the free room is big and would be a bit more then 450 euros).
Otherwise, the stagiaire houses Aneena was talking about in one of the previous posts sound good as rue marie-thérèse and rue des deux églises are right next to rue d'arlon.

Hope that helps.

Hey guys -
So what exactly is the deal with these stagiaire houses? I've looked but couldn't find them - perhaps they haven't been posted yet? I'd love to live with more trainees, but I have no clue how to go about it...Any ideas?
(BTW, Rue Marie Therese or R. des Deux Eglises would be IDEAL for me, as I'll be working in Madou).
A lot of the "collocation" offers I've seen are with non-trainees, so perhaps the way to go is to get a few of us together and book a multiple-room apartment (so we "form" the stagiaire house, so to speak?)
Anyhow, I'll be looking for multiple-bedroom apts, and if I find anything cool I'll post here (and if some of you want, you can do the same).
I also feel it's perhaps a little too early to look for places, since a lot of stuff hasn't been posted yet (many places are available for the summer only or have been posted a long time ago...)
Happy planning!

That's a good idea. I'll let you know if I hear of anything.

I have some offers I will post them here tomorrow. And I found that stagiaires house I was talking about earlier, sent an e-mail to the guy, it would be soooo great if we could rent that house together I hope he answers, if he does I'm sure I will book a room there cos I just loved it when I was there

That's awesome Aneena! Please let us know what he says, and if there is more than 1 room available, would you mind telling him there are more people interested and perhaps sharing his contact info, so we can email him about the other rooms ?
Thanks much!

Hello again!

I am also interested in the stagiaires house you are talking about Aneena, as it would be very close to my office too! Please, if the guy replies to you, let us know how many places are available... And, another question: are there two of these houses, I mean one in Rue Marie Therese and another one in R. des Deux Eglises, or it is only one and you just did not remember exactly in which of these two streets the house was?
Many thanks!

It was a looooong time ago, I remember my friend just got an internship and we were looking for a room for her, there was this guy who was showing us different houses in this area, like 3 or 4 - we were walking around and looking at free rooms and he had a couple. It was nice, cos every room has a bathroom, but there is a big common room with a place to sit, a TV - a common area to socialise and a big very well equipped kitchen. I remember I had a lot of fun there and I met really cool people living there
I don't know if it's the same guy, just sent him an e-mail, hopefully he replies soon I will let you know for sure!! I would love to live there since its like 100m from the metro and I will need to travel by metro to work.
We'll let's keep our fingers crossed that it's the same guy with the same houses, that they are still so nice, that he replies and that he has some free rooms for October.

I think it's not the place. Well I'm not giving up cos it was really nice, and what I'm finding now is mainly living with some families which I can't accept at all. I am not a calm kind of person going to bed at 8pm so I'd prefer something more entertaining Well I'll be looking but I guess it's still too early when only I find something really good I'll let you know.
By now I am collecting all the offers I will post them here when I have some time. Luckily I speak good French so I am looking at offers in all possible languages.
Found a room with a German couple close to the Commission if somebody is interested and a room in Etterbeek with 3 flatmates, I don't like neither still looking for my perfect place to live. Especially that my last student house was wonderful and I want something at least as good with at least as nice people

Bibi wrote:
Place Flagey is nice, it's busier than around the institutions. It depends what your criteria are really. But there is a bus (the 60) going from Flagey to Schuman so it wouldn't take you that long to go from Flagey to work I think.

Bibi, was away for some days - thank you very much for your advice, we definitely have to meet as a group in Bruxelles.

Hey, I've posted a few apartment offers under the "Room offers" topic - check them out if you want (they're all for 3 bedrooms)...

Hi, Brilliant discussion and the good advice on the best areas to live in-especially thanks to BiBi. I have a question, does anyone know the typical pollicy on pets in rented accomodation? I really really want to bring my cat with me and I am hoping it would not be too much of a problem! I guess I would have to get a studio or self contained accomodation rather than sharing because of the cat, which is a shame as I would like to share with people again but I guess there would be plenty of opporunties to meet people and socialise in the evenings!

Here is details of a new purpose built residence for trainees, due to open in Autumn- sounds quite nice- as they are ensuite yet still shared kitchens to meet others-

http://www.chab.be/FoyerUK.html

Wow, those rooms are more expensive than an individual studio or apartment in the very city centre. I doubt any stagiaire will spend so much money on a small room far away from the institutions.