Висше образование и студенти в БЕЛГИЯ

Practical information on how to find student accommodation in Brussels
STUVO (Student Services for Odisee and KU Leuven Campus Brussels) works with an external partner, Brik (https://www.brik.be/en), for student accommodation in Brussels. This is a service desk for students in Brussels that promotes Brussels as largest student city in Belgium and as a nice place to live and study. Apart from this, they also manage student housing and coordinate an online database with student accommodation: https://www.mykot.be/en
Please note that STUVO does not have on-campus housing nor do we manage any student accommodation ourselves in Brussels.
Contact details Brik: welkom@brik.be or +32 2 211 05 40
Brik and the online database MyKot
If it comes to student accommodation, STUVO refers you to Brik. This is a service desk for students in Brussels that promotes Brussels as largest student city of Belgium and as a nice place to live and study.
Brik manages approximately 400 student rooms/flats in the city center and they coordinate an online database (MyKot) with their own student accommodation as well as rooms of private owners in Brussels and in the communes of Brussels Capital Region.
On the English website of Brik: https://brik.be/en/, you can click on student housing and as such you will be referred to the online database ‘MyKot’ or you can immediately surf to the MyKot web page: https://www.mykot.be/en. It is advisable to request a free password and login for MyKot so you can make an account. You will be able to save your search results and see the contact details of the private landlords or you can immediately fill in your criteria and click on 'search'. If you create a new login, you will receive your password by e-mail. Afterwards you can fill in the basic search criteria or click on ‘Advanced search’ for a more detailed query. Do not forget to fill in the distance and indicate the correct campus (KU Leuven Campus Brussel or Odisee Campus Brussel) in the drop down box or you can leave these search criteria open to see more options.
Note that rental prices are highest in the city center (postal code: 1000 Brussels). Therefore, it may be interesting to also check the student accommodation in the other communes of Brussels Capital Region. For example, there are private owners in the MyKot database who rent student rooms in the "Koningsstraat" (1210 Sint-Joost-ten-Node). These rooms are approximately 15 minutes’ walk away from Campus Brussels. If you look in 1090 Jette or 1083 Ganshoren, rental prices are significantly lower than in the city center and you can easily get there with the public transport. Furthermore, you can look in 1040 Etterbeek, 1050 Elsene/Ixelles or 1060 Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles. You will have to take the public transport to get to the campus, but these are also very lively international neighbourhoods.
The accommodation you will see in the database are the current available rooms. You can indicate the availability date in the search criteria, but sometimes not all the landlords have already updated the status of their rooms.
Although it is most advisable to visit the student room/flat first before you sign a contract, it may not always be possible to come to Brussels before the start of the courses. If you arrive at the end of August or at the beginning of September you will have less choice of student accommodation since the best rooms are rented first. If it is not possible to come to Brussels before the start of the academic year, you can consider to rent a room from abroad. However, make sure that in this case you have a signed rental contract before your arrival. You can ask the landlord to sign the contract and send a scanned version by e-mail.
Never deposit the guarantee and the 1st month rent without having a signed copy of the rental contract. Be aware of possible fraud, every year there are students who rent from landlords whom afterwards appear to be fake or who have rented the room to another student in the end. Sometimes what you see on pictures on internet is not at all the same in reality.
Rental season for student accommodation managed by Brik starts at the beginning of July and it is therefore important to start your search for student accommodation in time. However, some private landlords already start earlier in the year as well as most private developers (e.g. Wilgimmo, Xior, Upkot, Diggit Student Life) as their rooms are very popular.
❗Important remarks
1. Check if the rooms are furnished and if there is a mattress available. Most rooms do not have sheets, blankets, a pillow, towels, cleaning material, kitchen utensils (pots and pans, glasses, plates, cuttlery, ...). Keep in mind you have to bring this or buy it upon arrival in shops such as IKEA, Hema, ...
Usually, there is no washing machine in the student houses, but there are a lot of laundry shops in Brussels where you can wash and dry your clothes.
2. You will be asked to pay a deposit (guarantee) which equals 2 months of rent in most cases. This is standard practice in Belgium. The deposit is refunded at the end of the contract if the room is left clean and if there is no damage. Otherwise, the deposit (or part of it) will be used to pay the damage or the cleaning.
3. In a lot of cases, you will also have to pay the first month rent along with the deposit before receiving the key to the room/studio/apartment. This serves as a guarantee for the landlord that you will actually rent the room and it is also your guarantee that the room is not rented to somebody else once you arrive.
4. If the room is rented by a private owner, do not hesitate to contact him/her immediately since they might already know the availability of their rooms for next academic year or have a waiting list in case rooms become available.
5. Financial guarantee to confirm the agreement
If you have found an interesting place to stay, you can contact Brik/the landlord either by e-mail or by telephone. If he/she agrees to rent the room to you, you might be asked to already pay the deposit in order to confirm the agreement. Some landlords/Brik also send the contract electronically and ask to send this back, this is another possibility.
6. The best way to find a room/studio is to make a few appointments by e-mail or by telephone with several landlords/Brik and then come to Brussels to choose the room you prefer. If, however, it is not possible to come to Brussels, you can try and make an agreement by e-mail or telephone and suggest that the rental agreement is send electronically and/or that you pay the deposit to confirm the reservation of the room.
Student accommodation in Leuven for KU Leuven Campus Brussels students
In case you did not find student accommodation according to your needs or budget, you may consider looking for a place to stay in Leuven. You can commute by train from Leuven to Brussels in approximately 20 minutes, not taking into account the travel time from your accommodation to the train station. Prices of the season ticket from the NMBS can be found on the website: https://www.belgiantrain.be/en
As you will study at the campus in Brussels, you are not allowed to rent a student room in one of the subsidized residences of KU Leuven in Leuven. However, if you are a KU Leuven student, you can be put on a waiting list for the residences of ‘Algemeen beheer’ in Leuven. Both Odisee and KU Leuven students can rent a student room from private landlords in Leuven, studying in Leuven is not a precondition in this case.
You can check the online database Kotwijs for available student accommodation from private owners: https://www.kuleuven.be/english/studentservices/housing-leuven
Other websites/Commercial rental initiatives
If you did not find what you were looking for in MyKot or Kotwijs, you can look for student accommodation from private project developers on the websites below. Most of the student residences have different types of accommodation in their residences so you have a bigger choice according to your needs/wishes. Some organizations rent accommodation both in Brussels as in Leuven.
If you would be interested in one of the student rooms in one of these residences, it is best to contact these organizations in time as they may work with a waiting list.
- www.wilgimmo.be/en > Residence Don Giovanni is a 3 minute walk from our campus, Residence L’Usine is on walking distance from the campus (15 minutes approximately).
- www.diggitstudentlife.eu > both residences are on walking distance from the campus although Studeopolis is outside the city center, near to the Brussels North train station.
- www.upkot.be > only by public transport, next to the train station in Jette. A more recent student residence in Brussels ‘King Upkot’ is open since September 2022. Check the website for more information and availability of rooms.
- www.studentcomfort.be > this organisation mainly rents accommodation in Leuven, but they took over the management of residence Woodskot in Brussels which is on walking distance from the campus
- www.xior.be > different residences in Brussels (somewhat further away from the campus)
- www.unest-studenthousing.com > brand new student residence (opened in September 2023) on walking distance from the Brussels South train station where you can either take the train to Brussels Central station or the tram to the city center and to the campus. You can also choose to rent a bike or buy a second hand bike and come to the campus by bicycle.
Please note that STUVO strongly advises to rent one of the rooms/studios/apartments from the database of Brik. In case of a rental problem, a mediator of Brik can contact the landlord. If you rent a place to stay with another organization or from another private owner, STUVO will not be able to mediate.
www.365rooms.be (situated in Ixelles)
https://ikot.be/en/
https://www.deltacampus.be/en/ (situated in Auderghem)
www.brukot.be
https://www.hostelvangogh.com/en (short and long term stay)
https://www.housestories.be/
https://bxlflats.com/dashboard (temporary accommodation)
www.airbnb.be (temporary accommodation only)
www.ion.be > The Residance (click on ‘contact’, fill in the form and indicate that you want to rent a room)