ULB residences from €368 per month, timeline, private alternatives and Brussels rules: the guide to finding a kot near ULB.
To find housing near the ULB, you have three options: a room or a studio in a university residence, a partner residence run by a private company, or a kot, a studio or a shared flat on the private market. The ULB residences are the cheapest, with rooms from €368 per month including charges for the 2026-2027 year, but places are allocated by lottery and the schedule is tight.
The ULB offers more than 2,400 rooms or apartments in its own residences and in private residences, on its three campuses (Solbosch, La Plaine, Erasme) or off campus. For everyone else, there is the Brussels rental market, an especially tight one: the Region has about 75% tenants, and the average rent on new leases reached €1,346 per month in 2025, all types of housing combined.
Here are the 2026-2027 residence prices, the schedule to follow, the alternatives and the Brussels rules to know before you sign.
According to the sheets published by the ULB Housing Office for the 2026-2027 academic year:
In all these residences, the rental deposit is one month's rent. At Bel-Air, the contract runs for 10 months, with a possible extension over the summer, and the sheet gives a Brussels reference rent of €618 for this type of studio.
Note that the Henri Dunant and Bertrand Russell residence, on the Erasme campus, is closing for good in September 2026.
For the 2026-2027 year, applications for university residence housing closed on 31 March. Answers arrive by email between late April and early May: either a place is allocated or you are put on a waiting list, with no ranking, since places are drawn by lottery. If you are aiming for the following academic year, prepare your application at the start of the calendar year.
Run by private companies, they apply, according to the ULB, the same criteria as its own residences for cost, comfort and communal life. They are spread across the city, around Solbosch and La Plaine, in the centre and near Erasme. Booking is done directly with each manager. The ULB warns that some raise their rates for five-month stays.
The university refers students to partner platforms, notably Studapart, which offers stays of 1 to 24 months near the campuses, and a rental platform powered by HousingAnywhere. It also cites the Plateforme Logement Etudiant, a non-profit created by Brussels higher education institutions to help students with their search.
Kots, studios and shared flats with private owners make up most of the supply. This is also where scams are concentrated: the ULB recommends being wary of rents below market prices, never sending money if in doubt or handing over your bank details, and refusing situations where you are pushed to pay quickly.
A one-bedroom apartment generally rents for between €900 and €1,200 per month in Brussels, and a two-bedroom for between €1,100 and €1,600. Shared by two, a two-bedroom therefore comes to €550 to €800 per person, excluding charges. Rental charges come on top, generally €50 to €200 per month depending on the property.
In Brussels, the lease must state, in addition to the actual rent, the property's reference rent, calculated according to its location and characteristics on the regional website loyers.brussels. The rent is presumed abusive if it exceeds this reference rent by more than 20%, unless the landlord justifies a particular level of comfort. Since 1 May 2025, the landlord can no longer ask for an abusive rent, and the tenant can request a revision: from the third month for a short-term lease, from the fourth month for a longer one.
The scheme is contested. In September 2026, Federia and other federations in the sector pointed out that the grid is based on leases from the 2017-2020 period, about 14,000 in total, and called for it to be updated. So run the test on loyers.brussels before you sign, keeping in mind that the grid is old.
If you are searching from abroad or did not get a place in a residence, a Remoters home finder based in Brussels can sort through the listings around your campus, do the viewings for you, check the reference rent, put together your application and review the lease. The first conversation and the quote are free.
Short answers to the questions our readers ask, written to stand on their own.
Sources cited in this article
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