Belgium

Brussels has a bad name with many Britons. It could be the thought of all those Eurocrats on fat salaries churning out directives stipulating the degree of curvature of our bananas. Or maybe it is because, unlike other European capitals, it is almost devoid of memorable tourist sights. Yet there is another side to the Belgian capital. While much of the centre has been ruined by tower blocks and multi-lane highways, the city is also the capital of Art Nouveau, the building style pioneered at the end of the 19th century by architects such as Belgian Victor Horta. The city boasts street after street of wide three and four storey terraced houses with high ceilings and imposing marble-clad entrances on sale for a fraction of the price of their equivalents in Paris and London. There is also a buoyant letting market, thanks to the tens of thousands of EU officials, diplomats, lobbyists and assorted hangers-on looking to rent their own little corner of the self-styled capital of Europe. Brussels is not as cheap as it was, with prices rising sharply since the mid 1990s,w with some years showing double digit rises. Although the rate of increase is slowing, there appears little danger of a crash. Thanks to the linguistic skills of the Bruxellois, there will be no problem conducting negotiations in English.

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