Brussels Gets Back On Track
The Sunday Telegraph, 25th November 2007When the first full speed Eurostars set off from their new London home at St Pancras two weeks ago, there was much hullabaloo about the new two-hour, 15-minute journey time to Paris. The even shorter hop to Brussels was overlooked in the excitement – but not by all.
Increasing numbers of canny Brits have quietly realised that the new golden age of fast train travel has brought the Belgian capital closer to London than such commuter stalwarts as Poole, Cheltenham and York, Sleek, modern trains will whisk passengers between the two capitals in just one hour 51 minutes, making Brussels suddenly a whole new lifestyle option.
When I visited Brussels last week for the first time since living there 15 years ago, I saw that it has undergone one of the most exciting revamps in Europe. In my day, it was a dull, grey city that had grown rich but certainly not stylish on the EU gravy train.
Offering none of the buzz of London or Paris, its sole attraction was perhaps its intoxicating white beer.
Yet now, thanks to billions spent on renovation plus a hitherto untapped supply of energy and civic pride, it has become a fascinating French/Dutch cultural mix. More than just its new accessibility, it has elegant squares, fashionable shops bars and restaurants, cutting edge design studios and galleries – and a whole new attitude.
But house prices, although now rising by 10 per cent to 15 per cent a year, were historically so low that they are still a fraction of the equivalents in other major European cities. Indeed, estate agents selling elegant studios in beautifully restored Flemish buildings, contemporary lofts in old industrial premises, and voluminous Art Deco houses in the leafier quarters, claim that even good-quality properties sell for between a third and fifth of similar Paris or London homes.
Restored studio flats a few yards from the Grand Place can be picked up for as little as €70,000 (£50,000), and vast, contemporary loft-style duplexes in former industrial buildings go for €500,000 (£360,000).
As a result, since the Thalys high speed train link to Paris (30 minutes shorter than the London trip) was launched 10 years ago, thousands of Parisians have already decamped across the border. "Property here is five times cheaper than in Paris," claims Quentin Vander Auwera of Century 21 agency in Brussels. "Parisians have come here in their thousands to live, escaping the higher prices back home." Now he expects similar interest from Britons. "We’ve sold places to five British people this year, and we have another 20 looking," he says.
Nearly half the buyers in a new development of 108 contemporary flats at Leopold Village – right next to the EU buildings on the Rue Belliard – are British. Prices start at €140,000 (£97,800) for a compact studio and €265,000 (£185,200) for spacious two bed flats with high-spec fittings such as Smeg kitchen equipment, brushed steel light fittings and wooden floors.
The same Irish developer, Thornsett Group, is also selling 28 off-plan apartments overlooking Boniface Square, a mile away in trendy Ixelles, at prices from €225,000 (£157,200) for a one bedroom flat. "British businessmen who know Brussels well have been attracted by values of €3,000-4,500 a square metre, which are around a third those of comparable areas in central London," says Eoghan Quinn of Thornsett.
Some of the buyers are merely investors – taking advantage of the vibrant rental market boosted by the 2004 enlargement of the EU to 27 countries as well as the long term headquarters of hundreds of multinational organisations such as Nato. Others are seizing the opportunity to think big on a limited budget. Hector Mcgillivray, who works for the European Commission, was until recently renting a cramped two-bedroom flat in Fulham but has now returned to his palatial three-bedroom, two-bathroom duplex apartment near the Botanical Gardens in Schaerbeek.
"I could never have afforded to buy in London, the prices are crazy," he says. He is now settled in Brussels with his high-tech kitchen, cutting edge lighting and acres of space. He bought the apartment as a shell for €211,000 in 2002, spent €150,000 on two garages and renovation, and now has the sort of pad with panoramic views that would cost millions back in Britain.
"Even now I don’t suppose it’s worth much more than €500,000," he says. "But it’s large, it’s light, I’ve been able to do what I wanted with it and now I can pop back to London whenever I need to."