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.
Who counts as a posted worker in Belgium
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.
Where housing appears in the posting rules
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.
Belgian housing standards apply to the accommodation
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.
