Like many countries in western Europe, Belgium is facing severe pressure in parts of its housing sector. Here, the challenges are most acute for students, who face a lack of supply of suitable housing, coupled with high demand for accommodation.
In 2020 it was estimated that an additional 95,000 homes needed to be built by 2030 to cope with rising student numbers. Since then, only 25,000 units have been completed, leaving another 70,000 needing to be built in the next five years - a very unlikely scenario.
According to Kotkompas 2025, the leading annual market study on student housing in Belgium, cities like Brussels and Ghent face some of the biggest challenges in terms of affordability and availability.
The study estimates that Brussels, the biggest Belgian student city, maintains a student population of about 125,000, which is about the same number of students as in all of Wallonia (132,000) and half as much as in Flanders (259,000).
Renting student accommodation in the capital will generally set you back about €680 per month, climbing to €780 if you are looking for a studio. The prices for student rentals have been rising sharply over the last few years.
For 40% of students who choose not to live in student accommodation, affordability is the main reason. Most students work alongside their studies to help with the cost. Another source of finance is parents.
While many regulations are in place on paper, in practice, the Belgian student housing market is quite informal, and dominated by smaller independent landlords and private contracts.
On campus student housing at campus Pleinlaan of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Students often face issues with their accommodation. Common problems include limited space, strange layouts and a lack of plumbing in place for washing machines. Mould, unsafe installations or even pests are not unusual.
Mounting pressure often leaves students with a choice between accepting high rent or putting up with poor living conditions. To save money, some choose long commutes from their home towns.
International students, an increasing part of the general Belgian student population, face some of the direst challenges when trying to find a student flat.
In the late summer, online forums like reddit are filled with messages from people looking for a rental too late - only to realise there’s no available accommodation left in their desired location. Renting something online also means only being able to see images of your future living space digitally, with some students finding their flats completely different upon arrival.
Voices of the students
Bicycles parked outside student housing in Leuven. Credit: Belga/ Siska Gremmelprez
The Brussels Times reached out to Belgian students to hear their stories about their experiences of renting student accommodation.
Anna, a bachelor student, whose name we have changed to protect her anonymity, says that the unaffordability of student housing has forced her to work two jobs, one of them in the black economy, to cover housing and day-to-day expenses.
While she acknowledges the system works for those with familial support or financial means, she finds sustaining student life with a student job is exhausting.
“I feel like I don’t have any personal life. On some days I would start university at 08:00 to go to the first job in the afternoon followed by another, working until midnight.”
Many of the respondents have also highlighted housing discrimination to non-Belgian students as a persistent issue.
Ednaiva, another student, also says that the cost of accommodation almost never matches desired living conditions. This has forced her into sharing, which she describes as stressful due to different cleanliness standards and domestic disputes.
She also says she experienced her landlord holding onto her deposit for far too long; a common complaint resulting from the less formalised nature of the student housing sector.
Paul, a Spanish Erasmus student, said that for him, the main difficulty was finding housing in smaller student towns like Geel, Herentals or Lier where he was doing a nursing internship.
While he found a solution in the end, he said that separation from his fellow students was hard. “The apartment was great but I felt very lonely.... it was very difficult and not the best experience I could imagine. That was hard to be honest.”
