Brussels’ New Image Comes at a Price

A city of low rents and few pretensions not long ago, Brussels now touts itself as the “Capital of Europe.” But friction is building between rich and poor, Belgians and foreigners.

Rents and real estate prices are soaring in anticipation of an influx of new “Eurocrats” in 1992, when the European Community becomes a united, open trading bloc and much more attention will be focused on Brussels, the body’s headquarters.

Construction crews are transforming old, modest neighborhoods into tonier places for new and wealthier inhabitants.

“Brussels, Europe’s Crossroads of Poverty,” said a sign recently in the Marolles, a working-class neighborhood where inhabitants are being forced out of their homes to make room for fancy apartments and shops on Sablon Square.

“Brussels Sparkles for Europe” counters a billboard on the square where fur-coated customers buy pastries at what has become the city’s priciest bakery or frequent fancy espresso bars, restaurants and antique shops.

Near the EC headquarters, old homes have been bulldozed to make way for new offices and a $231-million convention center.

All this, at a price.

“You cannot throw out residents like a pile of bricks,” said Father Jacques van der Biest, a Roman Catholic priest and a leader of the Marolles’ protests against sacrificing residents to urban renewal.

But as 1992 fever grips Brussels, social considerations are overwhelmed by real estate speculation.

Last fall, the Happy Babies nursery in central Brussels got a surprise eviction notice. The owner who had just bought the building wanted to sell it for a quick profit.

Finding no other premises at the $550 monthly rent it was paying, the nursery went into debt to buy the building. A Happy Babies official said the owner made a $35,000 profit in about a month.

“Now we have to spend double to pay off,” she said. “We don’t stop talking about money now. The future looks very bleak.”

Pensioners have been forced out of their apartments to make way for middle-income families who can no longer afford rents in their old neighborhoods.

The market is set to tighten even more, despite a decree limiting rent increases to inflation for the next year.

“We will have a battle between the haves and have-nots for the available homes,” said Herve Cnudde, head of the urban conservation group ARAU. “It is already the No. 1 issue in Brussels’ social and political circles.”

Apartments that fetched $250 a month in rent in 1987 now are double that in some neighborhoods.

The blame is laid on the EC, its 12,000 well-paid Eurocrats--who get tax breaks locals do not get--and its 1992 plan, which will lure even more Eurocrats and lobbyists to this city of just under 1 million people.

In addition to the Eurocrats, Brussels already has 20,000 lobbyists and 800 international trade organizations in operation.

“Foreigners can spend a lot more on housing than locals,” Cnudde said.

When owners demand big rent increases, many locals opt to move--some as far off as Antwerp or Charleroi, both 30 miles out.

“In the end there will be more foreigners than Bruxellois,” said Jacqueline Godfroid, a director at the Office of Property Owners.

Currently, some 25% of Brussels’ population is foreign, including many low-income immigrants from North Africa.

Foreign investors, however, find Brussels is still a bargain, despite the increased real estate values.

“Over the last two years a lot of people came in to buy: Scandinavians, Swiss, recently more Japanese and Americans because they realize the potential of the open market of 1992,” said Godfroid.