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My advice with a child that young is to enrol now for Dutch pre school called kleuterschool.  Enrolments are now.

Crèche will  be very difficult to source as  not working and you're 2years late looking but you ll find part time crèche that can cover morning  Dutch lessons for example which are free if you register as seeking work - best to enrol June for September start.

1.5k is a huge budget, almost double that of a Belgian family looking for a 2 bed apartment.

Wilrijjk and southern antwerpen towns are fine. I d look for tram and train connections. Only one place to look and that's immoweb.

Antwerpen has quite a selection of pools, you can get a season ticket. The biggest, wezenberg, has a gym too, don't know about others, closes for renovation tomorrow for 6 months.

Oh that’s great hopefully we’ll find somewhere nice for the budget then. Thanks

Surely there must be some expats leaving and coming all the time from Antwerp with children- but do the places at the crèches get taken really quickly?

Obviously I had no idea two years ago that we’d be moving, but I’m nervous that my son will miss out on the interactions with other children of his own age without crèche and not learn Dutch very easily without it. Hmm that’s a rather huge concern.

I’ve had a look at the kindergarten as you suggested but without speaking Dutch I’m struggling to navigate.

Part of the reason for deciding to go to Antwerp was that we thought it would be good for our son but being stuck at home with me will not be a better new experience for him at all!

If you want your son to learn Dutch, why are you planning to send to private English school?

I want to send him to the international preschool so he gets to meet people from all over and also makes it’s easier for him to understand when it’s time to move back.. but I’d still like him to learn some Dutch.

If he speaks English, he does not need help understanding English.

Local schools in antwerpen are as multinational as private English ones, so there is no advantage there in choosing private.

He will only learn Dutch if he goes to local public school and he ll only retain it if he is there for 3 years, so 1 in Dutch is pointless if it is followed by 2 years in English.

He ll return to UK aged 4, he s hardly going to struggle on return with 2 English speaking parents.

There seems to be a lot of judgement around about the international schools..

When I say easier to understand when we move back I simply mean the fact that the international school will see more leavers and joiners throughout the years than local school and will make it less difficult for him to understand that there will come a time when we have to move again.

I’ve no idea till we visit what option we’ll go for really. So thanks for your time anyway and I’ll try to get some Dutch assistance with the kindergarten application

Again your assumptions about international a d local schools are not based on fact.

There is little turnover of children at dyp school for example.

It is extremely doubtful an international school will spend time explaining to your child they are changing school. On that logic, either avoid all form of school or never remove them from school. I can predict no difference in the way a local or international school would react to a child leaving.


It's not kindergarten, that is German. In Dutch you're either referring to kribbe or kleuterschool.

Hi all,

I have a familiar situation (2 year old twin boys) relocating from UK and so can relate to most of the thread.

I however have another query which is slightly different.

For me the salary negotiations are yet to happen and when I was trying to compare the gross to net salary calculators and the Belgium tax structure made me bit nervous. It appears that I would have to ask for around 35-40% hike to essentially make the same money as I make in UK. Websites like Numbeo do not show any significant cost difference though I agree that rent appears to be lower in Belgium. Is this a fair comparison or I am missing something? I appreciate my question is a very specific question, but if anyone has any insights, would hugely appreciate those.

Best regards,

What is the gross? What other benefits are there? Often salaries come with free company cars, free hospitalization insurance for the entire family. You normally also get food cheques which these days are loaded onto a card, so if working 225 days a year at 8 euro per day, that is worth,1800 euro per year. You get 70% minimum costs for public transport, for example a STIB Brussels public transport pass instead of 500 euro per year, you pay 150 euro per year max.

You should take into account other things like housing, food, utilities, your lifestyle expectations. Yes housing even in Brussels, 2 bed apartment, easy to get for less than 1k in the most expensive areas too. Food I'd say add on 20% of UK prices, but it depends, if you shop at Lidl, it will be similar to the UK, if you go to Midi and Abbatoir markets, it will be even cheaper, but generally yes food is more expensive. Eating out I simply cannot afford so cannot compare but been told it is more expensive. Children's activities, unless you're doing tennis or horse riding, will be considerably cheaper than UK. Before and after school care 0700 to 1800/1830 will be so cheap you'll fall over unless you choose an international school that generally charges 10 times what public schools charge for identical service.

If you are living in a high housing cost area of Brussels, you would need, including child benefit,for 2 adults and 2 children, about 2500 euro per month in the bank and 2 months of extra pay of 2500 euro.  You will get 268 per month child benefit which will rise with age.  To make  2500-268 = 2232 euro net per month requires a non working spouse and 3000 gross per month.

3000 gross is 2232 net.
3500 gross is 2500 net.
4000 gross is 2738 net. By this level income, you'll be pretty comfortable, unless you have chosen a very large or high standard rental or unless you have a lifestyle which requires a larger income.

The figures come from this calculator. You have to ticket 2 non handicapped children and untick spouse with income. Remember most employers get just under 14 months not 12 months of salary, by the time they've worked a year.

You might be lucky with finding a kribbe (creche). You need a place for a "peuter" which is the name given to a child from 12 months to about 3 years.

There are a few kribben showing vacancies here but it might not reflect reality and if they are public ones, they may refuse you a place if you're not working or not in training which they usually do.

Hello,

First of all, thank you for such an elaborate reply.

Our lifestyle is pretty ordinary and I would be renting a standard 2BHK apartment but safety is important, so wouldn't mind spending little extra to accommodate that. We would spend on annual vacations and dining, but again nothing out of ordinary.

I am well above the €4000 gross mark and so based on your inputs, it should be comfortable.

I will do some more analysis on your inputs. Thanks again.

You can reduce your tax liability with stuff like child care - 11.20 you can claim every day per child under 12, means effectively 5 euro off per day in child care. Child care is creche for under 3, before and after school care and lunch time supervision, weekly holiday camps.

You can reduce tax liability if you don't do your own housework and employ someone to do it, it's called in French titre-service, you buy a 9 euro per hour "cheque", the cleaner gets a bit under 11 euro per hour and full employees entitlement to sick and holiday pay, you get to reduce your tax bill by about 4 euro for each hour, there is a top limit though.

There are other ways, it does add up. The downside is it takes up to 2 years for the offsetting against taxes to happen, eg child care in 2018 will be filed in June 2019 and you might get a refund in June 2020.

Any income over 4000 per month gross, you'll basically get taxed at about 50%, as you are a higher rate earner.