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Buildings, sites, urban development

A large commercial building stock serves the needs of businesses of all sizes in all sectors in the Brussels-Capital Region.
Offices, industrial zones, sites, business parks – The Brussels-Capital Region has a large building stock to serve the needs of businesses of all sizes, in manufacturing, industry or services.

This subsection contains full information on finding a business location in the Brussels-Capital Region:

Office buildings

If you would like a general survey of the office situation in the capital, urban.brussels and the Inventimmo service of citydev.brussels produce annual statistics on the office building stock in the Brussels-Capital Region.

Industrial zones

There are 27 industrial zones in the Brussels-Capital Region, located in outer neighbourhoods, along the canal and in the vicinity of rail and road junctions. The main sectors served are mechanical engineering, electronics, printing, publication, clothing and food.

There has been a marked shift to high-added value products, such as chemicals, aeronautic construction, precision tools and telecommunications.

Industrial parks

  • Da Vinci industrial park in Evere: a park covering 360,000 square metres with the highest concentration of ICT businesses in Belgium. As a major hub of economic development in the Brussels-Capital Region the park is home to subsidiaries and coordination centres of large industrial groups, especially in IT, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, as well as innovative SMEs.
  • Erasmus industrial park in Anderlecht: a park covering around 200,000 square metres, which has grown in synergy with the Erasme medical campus (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and focuses on cardiology.

Commercial sites: the “socio-economic permit”

Businesses wishing to move into existing sites or build new sites covering more than 400 square metres require a special “socio-economic permit”. The application must be submitted to the communal executive of the commune where the site is located. A “socio-economic dossier” can also be submitted to support your application.

Focus on the port zone

The rapid development of logistics and transport has positioned the Port of Brussels as an integrated multimodal platform in the European transport networks. Within this framework, the Region pursues a dynamic policy of supporting the establishment of logistical businesses that generate jobs.

For more information in French or Dutch, see the official Brussels-Capital Region urban development website at www.urbanisme.irisnet.be (FR/NL).
Brussels is the preferred home of numerous large Belgian businesses. Many of them have their head office in the Region, despite their production sites being in another part of the country. Many multinationals also choose Brussels as the location for their European office.