Brussels is facing a chronic social housing shortage, with families in one municipality facing a 14-year wait to be given a home. Now, a fossil-free project on the site of a former school in Schaerbeek has a social and environmental solution.
Soon, 82 Brussels families will be able to move into a sustainable five-floor social housing unit in the area. Construction will start this summer on a vacant plot on Rue Capronnier in the Canal district of Brussels, which is currently being redeveloped, and is scheduled for completion in late 2024.
The building will be net-zero, which with rising energy prices, will be an additional benefit to tenants.
"The entire building is fossil-free. That means that it is not heated by gas, but by heat pumps that are powered by solar panels. In addition, all the insulation meets the strictest standards," said Kristof Vanfleteren, CEO of project developer ION, which presented the plans.
"This will help to keep the residents' energy bills under control and to reduce their costs."
Thibauld Collignon, Director of the Social Rental Office for Neighbourhoods, stressed the importance of combining all forces, public, private and collaborative, to create more social housing in the region.
"In this way, not only will more homes be built, but they will also meet the strictest sustainability requirements. This project is another step in the right direction and shows that private investors also believe in our social vision," he said.
Good for tenants and owners
The design of the building has already been agreed upon: The unit, which will be built around a spacious courtyard garden of almost 700 square metres, will have five floors, a Lidl supermarket on the ground floor, and all parking spaces — 103 in total — will be underground.
Inside one of the social housing flats. Credit: ION
The entire building has no conventional heating or cooling system and is aimed at providing optimum winter and summer comfort. It will be managed for 30 years by the non-profit-making organisation Social Rental Office for Neighbourhoods, which aims to make quality housing more accessible.
Investors are assured of an indexed return for the next 30 years and can count on various tax benefits, such as a reduced VAT rate of 6% until the end of 2023 and exemption from property tax due to the building's sustainable nature.
A push for social housing
The project provides an answer to the large shortage of social housing in the capital. Some 50,000 families with a limited income are currently looking for affordable homes. Its sustainable nature also fits in with Brussels' goal to make social housing more climate-friendly.
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In February, the first contracts were awarded in Brussels’ plan to renovate 1,057 social housing units and make the buildings more climate-friendly to reduce the energy bills of social tenants, improve the living environment of residents, and boost energy efficiency. Once the work is finished, 75% of the units will meet environmental standards for being low-energy.
Additional social housing units will also be constructed in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode and, as part of the redevelopment of the Abattoir site in the municipality of Anderlecht, affordable public housing will also be built along the canal. Eventually, the site will also have an open-air swimming pool on the roof.
