Luxury real estate , Brussels

Gérard Depardieu’s new pile in Néchin, the small Belgian village where the actor has decided to set up house, isn’t the most beautiful of abodes. And more’s the pity for him, because the home of the European Commission is blessed with some architectural gems. A small country of eleven million inhabitants, Belgium is often considered - and even reviled as - a tax haven. But it is more like heaven for anyone who enjoys fine food and the good life. Brussels’ built environment is high-end, its Zen-like atmosphere and its shops stocked with the latest fashions. In short, the Belgian capital is a lovely city to live in… as long as you forget about a few traffic jams. Like Tokyo over the last few years or modern-day London, Brussels boasts a blend of architectural styles. And it creates a rather pleasing effect (with all due respect to critics of Paris’s future Tour Triangle skyscraper): ultra-contemporary cubist villas and old mansions rub shoulders in different neighbourhoods or even on single streets.

Capital of art nouveau

The Belgian architect Victor Horta (1861-1947), pioneer of art nouveau, is a local celebrity. Horta was the man behind (inter alia) four buildings in Brussels that are listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the elegant Armand Solvay House, former home of the chemical magnate.Would an art nouveau aficionado be in a position to afford a house or mansion by the master? "It’s not out of the question,” replies David Chicard, head of Sotheby's International Realty in Brussels. “Properties by Horta are listed and very rare, but two or three buildings from the period do change hands every year." For the record, there is a certain developer who purchases art nouveau buildings by Horta at regular intervals. He collects them for his own enjoyment, and now owns a good fifteen properties that he has restored to varying degrees. These edifices, which flatter the eye and the ego of the people who own them, can cost from 300,000 euros to three or four million depending on their condition. Properties going for under a million euros are of a good standard. A lawyer with a passion for art nouveau recently fell in love with a 230 m2 listed building priced at 600,000 euros. "The transaction took nine months,” says the head of Sotheby's. “That's a long time for this type of property but the building consisted of several floors."

A wide range of properties

Whether inspired by art nouveau, art Deco or earlier architectural forms, Brussels’ splendid mansions are usually attached, narrow, tall and rather dark inside. It is important, therefore, that the facades are punctured by as many windows as possible to let the light in. In fact, the width of the facades generates a real fanaticism, and is stated to the nearest centimetre on the notices for sale. Ornamentation is de rigueur: it was a sign of wealth over the centuries, and the custom continues. Brussels has just spent a great deal of care - and over a million euros - on restoring the edifices lining the Grand Place with their remarkable architectural detail.

The distinction between a maison de maître (manor house) and a hôtel particulier (private mansion) is blurred. "The term hôtel de maître, which refers to a hôtel particulier in Brussels, is somewhat overused, and is often employed for marketing purposes to add value to what is actually a simple house," claims Cédric Maes, branch manager at Engels & Völkers. A quintessential example of a hôtel particulier in the Belgian style can be found at number 139, Avenue Molière. Based on a Florentine palace, it was built in 1900, covers 1,000 m2 and is hidden behind a 15 m wide facade. This historical building has no less than seven bedrooms and four bathrooms but almost no garden. Indeed, it should be seen more as a space for hosting functions rather than a family home, especially as the asking price of 3.5 million euros is quite high. There is a 500 m2 maison de maître on the same avenue, situated on south-facing land, which is on sale for 1.29 million euros but which needs renovating. It is an imposing building with 350 m2 living space over five floors.The floor spaces and volumes of property in the Belgian capital are large because house prices do not rise excessively here. In other words, the market is stable: the average price per square metre ranges from 2,000 to a maximum (that is rarely reached) of 8,000 to 9,000 euros per square metre for very upmarket residences. Although there was a major boom between 1998 and 2008, as in other capitals, there was no subsequent drop in value. And when prices do go up slightly, it is not because people are keen to speculate. It is, as they say, a seemingly healthy market.

The most sought-after neighbourhoods

The region known as Brussels Capital is divided into nineteen small municipalities that are akin to Paris’s arrondissements or districts. They are villages (or even smaller than villages) and the best addresses are located to the south, such as Avenue Molière, Avenue Louise, Place Brugmann and the Prince d’Orange quarter. Two residential areas have won favour among the rich and wealthy: Uccle, where the Jean Monnet French Lycée is situated, and the Ixelles district, where the famed Place Brugmann cultivates a chic and casual look that would not be out of place in London or Paris. The plots are larger here than in the centre of Brussels, and some owners even tear down decaying properties to build villas that are more to their liking. And, provided they follow the basic rules of urban planning, virtually anything is possible in Uccle, where almost every type of architecture exists side-by-side. Ixelles, on the other hand, intends to preserve its architectural codes. In both districts you can acquire a 500 m2 villa with 2,000 m2 of land for two million euros.

The French community makes up at least a tenth of the population, with a steady stream arriving from France for several years. "I don’t believe in the myth of the tax exile," says Cédric Maes. “The real tax expatriates are in London or Singapore. French people come to live in Brussels simply because they feel at ease here. What’s more, the properties are of good quality and significantly less expensive than in other capitals."

A little further from the centre of Brussels, the town of Rhode Saint Genèse is developing a portfolio of beautiful properties that are even more spacious. Linkebeek is smaller, hilly, picturesque and equally residential - and Charles V once hunted there. In 2010 these two municipalities voted to remain united with the Brussels region in the event of a Francophone-Flemish partition of Belgium.

An innovative spirit

There are about a hundred property developers operating in and around Brussels, including Atenor, Eaglestone and Macan Development. Their clientele mostly consists of Eurocrats working for EU institutions, whose purchasing power is well above that of ordinary Belgians. High-range building programmes have been launched in Ixelles on Avenue de la Toison d’Or. While promoters had been hoping for prices of between 7,500 and 12,000 euros per square metre, they have actually been fluctuating at between only 4,500 and 6,500 euros. The Jaspers-Eyers architectural practice was, however, at the helm: a prime contractor with a good reputation in Brussels, the firm has constructed numerous residential buildings and offices and, more recently, Lex, the seat of the Council of Europe.

Postmodernism is also leaving its mark in the Brussels region: in Ixelles, a major rehabilitation project has been awarded to Jean Nouvel’s practice. The scheme will transform the former headquarters of Belgium’s Red Cross, housed in a 1930s building, into a spectacular apartment block featuring a 250 m2 split-level penthouse with a 130 m2 panoramic terrace. The price will be close to three million euros. Another project for the future is Up-Site: developed by Atenor, it will create a new district bordering the Willebroek canal. The Up-Site residential tower, which was inaugurated in June 2014, is the highest in Belgium and symbolizes the regeneration of the area around the canal, which has until now been somewhat forgotten.

What will be the overall property trends in the years to come? Is the market going to carry on progressing slowly, surely but sluggishly? "It has been a case of ‘wait-and-see’ in recent months," explains Philippe Rosy, director of Engel & Völkers Belgium, before adding that the prospect of tax adjustments in Belgium, or the melt-down of the country’s stock exchange last summer, might lie behind the slowdown. "Although the French are still well-off, they aren’t quite the same as they were ten years ago." The agency’s French customers now include more retirees and small business owners than in the past, and the number of wealthy families or individuals moving to Brussels has fallen. The exit tax, which taxes unrealized capital gains before fiscal residence is transferred to another country, has undoubtedly penalised French buyers. "In a single year,” says Philippe Rosy, “we saw three clients leave the country overnight for this very reason."