Pros and Cons: Student home Jette Erasmushogeschool, Brussels

Hey there! This post is aimed to those who are considering staying in Erasmushogeschool's student home in Brussels. Due to the lack of official information about the place, I am going to make a list of pros and cons. These were my impressions after a month living there (October, 2014):

Pros

-Flexible contracts: just talk to the person in charge and you will be able to live in the student home for one, two, five months... This is very difficult to find in this city, where most of the contracts are strictly for 6 or 12 months.

-Very cheap: €295 per month plus €300 as a guarantee (they will give it back to you when you go back home).

-Total freedom: no schedules, no curfew, not even surveillance in the nights. You can throw a party and you will only have a problem with the students who want to sleep. Nobody complains if you bring people to stay the night in your room (even for several nights).

-Private rooms with your own sink and fridge. Enough space in the room and good furniture.



-Close to public transportation. The student home isn't close to the subway, but the bus reaches the first subway station in 20 minutes and the centre of the city in 30-40 minutes.

-Good atmosphere. Everyone who lives here is an international student. You will enjoy the dinners at the kitchen.

-Laundry room in the building. If you go to a shared flat, you will likely find out there is not a washing machine.

-Languages school and sports in the campus, literally 5 minutes away from your room. Good prices: about €100-€200 for an anual language workshop.

-Safe and quiet area. There is a very big hospital and a lovely forest next to the student home. You will enjoy fresh air.

-The student home can be very quiet. The room is built so you don't have to hear your neighbors... Unless they make loud noises on purpose.

-Central heating and warm building. You can turn on and off the heating in your room.

-3 supermarkets, stores and a subway station 10-15 minutes away by bus.

Cons

-This student home may not be the best option if you want to be close to the centre. It can be a problem when you go out in the night and you don't want to get a cab.

-Shared toilets and showers. They work properly, but the cleaning is definitely a huge problem in here. These places are cleaned almost every single day, but people can be very dirty... (at least in the second floor, where I stayed).

-Shared kitchen. It's the same thing as with the toilets. And there is not an oven, but there's a microwave. No one knows why.



-Bugs. The first month I stayed in the building, there were bugs. Then they fixed the problem and bugs never came back. I don't know if this is a recurrent problem.

-Some rooms are not ok. Sometimes there is a damaged rug rather than normal floor, a bad mattress or dirty walls. This only depends on your luck.

-You have to buy your own sheets and pillow. The student home offers this for €5 but I recommend you going into the store. You will also have to buy plates, glasses, pots, forks...

-Two washing machines and a dryer for all the students. You have to plan the right moment to use them since there's a lot of people living there.

-Link for the internet. There is NO WI-FI. And the plug for internet is far from the desk, so you can buy a very long link (2 meters) for €5 in the student home. You can also bring one from your home.

-The only common room to stay is the kitchen. There's not such a thing like a living room.

-People smoking in common rooms.

So this is all I can tell you by now. In conclusion, my experience in here is positive. All problems have a solution and common rooms are cleaned very frequently. If you are not too picky and you want to dare yourself to live in a non luxurious place for international students, this can be a great place to stay.

Good luck with your search for a place to live in Brussels!