Leuven Travel Forum

Hey,
I'm travelling to Leuven at the end of August.I'll be staying there for one year to continue my Masters studies in Industrial Management. Unfortunetly, I haven't found a place to stay in till now. It seems I can't reserve online,it's some kind of a regulation for the university. Does anyone know if there are studios/rooms in Leuven that I can reserve from abroad?
Reef

If you are staying there for one year it would be very dangerous to sign a lease without having seen the property, and this may well be why it is not possible to reserve from abroad. In Belgium, a one-year lease (or 9 months - anything less than 3 years) is NOT BREAKABLE, even at the cost of paying penalties (as with a 3-year lease), this means that if you don't like the place and want to leave after a few weeks, you would still have to pay 12 months' rent! I would strongly recommend you to stay in a hotel or bed and breakfast for a few days while you look for somewhere to rent.
If you can read French or Dutch, the main website for student rooms ("kots") is www.student.be/fr/kotcentral/ but there are others like www.immobrussels.be/fr/immo/portail-annonces-kot/.
I'm seeing someone later today who lives in Leuven and may have some tips for you, if so I'll add the info later.
Good luck.

There are so many signs out for rooms and studio's for rent, and I'm sure it will stay that way 'till september! If I was you, I would come to Leuven, stay in the youth hostel close the station for 2-3 days and go around leuven and just look at some places or go to the KUL...

I would not sign a contract from abroad! The youth hostel doens't even cost 20 euro's a night and at least you can looka round and see which neighboorhood you like and if the place is clean,... You might even be able to fine a room for one month on the site mentioned above, and look for something better to stay in for the rest of the year!

Good luck!!

Hey,

Basically, the University itself doesn't own many buildings in terms of rooms to stay. However, there are a vast amount of privately owned proporties that you can rent.

If you arrive at the end of August there's no worry whatsoever. There'll be a wide range to chose from, in terms of location, size and obviously cost.

Not sure at what Faculty you'll be, but since the University is very de-centralised (It is spread over building across town), it'd be interesting if you'd got to know where your classes will be, it may be a good idea to take that into account, allthough Leuven is not a big place (you can get from one side to the other on bike in less than 15')

Anyway, should you have any further questions, don't hesitate to drop me an email on longway2go_1@hotmail.com

Kind Regards,
R.