Housing posted workers in Belgium is part of the posting itself: EU and Belgian rules cover the accommodation an employer provides, the allowances it pays for lodging, and the records it keeps. This checklist is for HR teams, project managers and foreign contractors sending staff to Brussels, Antwerp or Ghent, with links to the official sources. This page is general information, not legal advice, so confirm the details for your own case with your payroll provider or legal adviser.
A posted worker is an employee who normally works outside Belgium, or was hired outside Belgium, and is sent by their employer to work in Belgium for a limited period. According to the Federal Public Service Employment (FPS Employment), the employment relationship must exist before the posting and continue throughout it.
A typical example is an engineer seconded to a plant in the Port of Antwerp. Self-employed people are not covered by the labour-law posting rules described here.
Housing appears in the rules in three ways: the quality of accommodation the employer provides, allowances for travel, board and lodging, and how those allowances relate to pay.
The EU directive. The revised Posting of Workers Directive, Directive (EU) 2018/957, added two items to the host-country terms that apply to posted workers: "the conditions of workers' accommodation where provided by the employer" to workers away from their regular place of work, and allowances or reimbursement for travel, board and lodging. Its recitals add that authorities should be able to check that accommodation provided by the employer meets the host country's rules. Member States had to apply these measures from 30 July 2020.
The Belgian law. Belgium transposed the directive with the law of 12 June 2020, which amended the law of 5 March 2002 on posting of workers. Under its Article 5, an employer posting workers to Belgium must respect the Belgian working, pay and employment conditions set by criminally sanctioned laws and by collective agreements made binding by royal decree. Where such a binding sector agreement provides allowances for travel, lodging and food for workers away from home, those rules apply to posted workers when they travel to or from their usual workplace in Belgium, or are temporarily sent from it to another workplace.
Allowances and pay. Under Article 6/1 of the same law, an allowance paid because of the posting counts as pay unless it reimburses costs actually incurred, such as travel, lodging or food. If it cannot be established which part of an allowance is reimbursement and which part is pay, the whole allowance is treated as reimbursement of costs. In practice, this is a reason to keep housing costs clearly separate from wages.
The accommodation itself is governed by regional housing rules, because housing is a regional matter in Belgium: Antwerp and Ghent fall under Flanders, and Brussels under the Brussels-Capital Region.
Flanders (Antwerp, Ghent). Article 3.1 of the Flemish Housing Code (Vlaamse Codex Wonen) requires every dwelling to meet elementary safety, health and housing quality requirements, covering among other things floor area, sanitary facilities, heating, fire safety and smoke detectors.
Temporary worker housing in rooms (Flanders). Since 1 October 2023, local authorities in Flanders can apply a specific framework for the temporary housing of workers in room-based dwellings (kamerwoningen), with its own standards. If you plan to house workers in shared rooms, check with the municipality which local rules apply.
Brussels. The Brussels Housing Code sets elementary requirements for safety, sanitation and basic facilities in rented homes, including hot and cold water, a toilet, a safe electrical system, heating, cooking facilities and smoke alarms. The regional housing inspection can check whether a dwelling complies.
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A foreign employer posting employees to Belgium must file a Limosa declaration before the work in Belgium begins. The FPS Employment formalities page explains that the declaration is made online and immediately produces a receipt, the Limosa-1, which each posted employee must show to the Belgian client before starting work. If the proof is missing, the Belgian client has to report it.
According to the official Working in Belgium guide to Limosa, the declaration asks for the places of work in Belgium, the Belgian client, the expected start and end dates (up to 24 months per declaration), the employees, the work schedule, the employer's details and a liaison person for the Belgian authorities.
The same FPS Employment page also lists registration at the municipal administration of the place where the posted worker is staying among the formalities of a posting.
When a posting actually lasts longer than 12 months, additional Belgian working conditions apply to the work carried out after the twelfth month. The FPS Employment explains that the employer can postpone this by six months with a motivated notification sent before the end of the twelfth month.
If one posted worker replaces another doing the same task at the same place, the periods are added together, so rotating crews are tracked from the start of the task, not per person.
Belgian inspectors can ask the employer of posted workers for a defined set of documents. Article 7/1 of the law of 5 March 2002 lists the employment contract or an equivalent document, information on pay currency, cash and in-kind benefits linked to the posting and repatriation, time records, and proof of wage payments. On request, these must be provided in a national language or in English, and they must remain available for one year after the posting ends. It is practical to keep housing contracts and invoices in the same file.
Work through this list before the first worker arrives and review it when the team changes.
Confirm the posting. Check that each person is a posted employee under the definition above, and file the Limosa declaration before work starts.
Check the sector agreement. Find the joint committee (commission paritaire / paritair comité) that covers the work, and whether a binding agreement provides allowances for travel, lodging or food.
Decide how housing is arranged. If the company provides or reimburses accommodation, record housing costs separately from wages.
Choose compliant accommodation. Use housing that meets the regional quality standards. For shared rooms in Flanders, check the municipality's local rules.
Plan the address. If workers will register with the commune, confirm before booking that the property can be used as a registered address.
Keep the file. Store housing contracts and invoices with the posting documents.
Track the duration. Watch the 12-month threshold, including replacements for the same task at the same place.
Plan changes. Agree in advance how extensions and replacements of workers will be handled.
A furnished Globexs apartment or house gives posted workers a complete home from the first day, under a written contract with the company. That covers the accommodation item on the checklist.
Ready to live in. Furnished apartments and houses with a kitchen in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent.
All-in price. Energy is included with no cap in euros, so the monthly housing cost is known in advance and easy to separate from wages. From EUR 1,300 per month in Antwerp and from EUR 1,500 in Brussels and Ghent; houses for teams near Brussels from EUR 2,950.
Registered address. Possible when the owner agrees. Send a written request to your rental agent, we ask the owner and confirm the answer. Price, contract and deposit do not change.
Teams from 1 to 50. Apartments, houses or a mix, close to the same site. See housing a project team in Belgium and worker accommodation in Belgium.
1 to 11 months. Extensions with a single email. If a worker is replaced, the contract continues with an addendum for the new occupant, as described in our guide to employee rotation in corporate housing.
Simple paperwork for the worker. Only an identity document. No Belgian bank account, proof of income or guarantor.
Fast arrival. Move-in the same day or the day after the contract is signed and the instant transfer arrives.
More on addresses: registering with the commune in Belgium. The full company offer: corporate housing across Belgium, or browse Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent.
The posting rules do not require every employer to provide housing. They set standards for accommodation when the employer provides it, and they cover allowances for travel, lodging and food where a binding Belgian sector agreement provides them.
The same regional standards that apply to any dwelling: the Flemish Housing Code in Antwerp and Ghent, and the Brussels Housing Code in Brussels. Flanders also has a specific framework for temporary worker housing in shared rooms, applied by municipalities.
Not if it reimburses actual costs caused by the posting, such as lodging. Under Belgian law, when it is unclear which part of an allowance is reimbursement, the whole allowance is treated as reimbursement of costs.
Before the work in Belgium begins. The declaration is made online and immediately produces a Limosa-1 receipt, which each posted employee shows to the Belgian client before starting work.
Yes, when the owner agrees. The company sends a written request to the rental agent, Globexs asks the owner and confirms the decision. The price, contract and deposit stay the same.
Yes. Globexs houses teams from 1 to 50 people in apartments, houses or a mix, and parking is shown in each listing.
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Globexs has provided furnished housing for companies and their staff since 2002. It was founded in Antwerp by Belgian entrepreneur Lodewijk Cuypers and today lists 135 furnished properties in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent.
