Apartment progress: 15%
A couple of weeks have passed and the construction is making good progress. The foundation and base plate is placed. How do I know? As the project progress, I receive invoices for said construction. Last week Friday I received the invoice for the finalization of the foundation works.
The construction faced a bit of a delay due to COVID, but it’s moving along nicely now.
Even though initial progress was a bit slow, the next steps should go smoother as construction goes up. As workers go vertical, the lower floors will receive final touches. The building will have two basement levels which will hold the garage spots as well as garbage collection and bike racks. 0 will have a commercial space and some extra bike racks. Levels 1 to 5 will be the residential areas where an elevator or stair brings you to a small hall with only two doors.
Getting Fire and family insurance: check!
One of the last things I still had to arrange for my apartment was the insurances. As a requirement to get the 1.47% interest rate Fortis required to get the fire and family insurance with them.
Below is a quick overview of what I’ll be getting to cover my family’s ass while living in the apartment in Brussels. On top of this I’m considering one extra insurance: legal assistance. I think it might be interesting considering I’ll be living in an apartment building where there might be some differences of opinion. Would you get it? Please let me know in a comment 😉
- Fire and explosions, lightning, electrical damage
- Natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, storms, ice damage)
- Water damage
- Riots
- Theft
- Glass damage
- Terrorist attacks
- Collisions against the building
- Basic legal insurance (law suite by the person who caused the damage)
- Physical damage
- Incidents in or to a rental home
- Damage to third parties
- Damage by drones (when flown in areas where it’s allowed)
- Hurt due to sport, culture, or youth activities
- Damages caused as the organizer of an event
- Damages caused as a hunter
- (Serious) Incidents caused by kids younger than 16 y/o
- Legal assistance in case if law suite for above damages
First invoices received: what's the cost?
As the deadline moves closer (though they can always call upon the Coronacrisis for additional time) I get increasingly curious about how the building and by extension my apartment will look.
As you can see in the image above, there is still a way to go before we can call this a building, but the foundations are finally there!
With each new stage, the building is taking shape but it also means more invoices. Last week Friday I received the first couple of invoices. As per the deed the first invoice was for the base plate.
15% of the construction value (180,000 EUR excl. VAT) is now due. This brings the first invoice to 27,000 EUR (excl. VAT) but since I got a commercial offer of 1,000 EUR (incl. VAT) I only have to pay 27,000 EUR + 21% – 1000 EUR = 31,670 EUR.
Aside from the construction of the apartment, there is also the garage. This is considered separate so I got a separate invoice for that. As my spot is located on -2 I immediately pay two parts, 30% for the base and 30% when the level of my spot is finished. The construction cost of the garage was valued at 19,500 EUR. 60% of 195,00 EUR incl. VAT is 14,157.00 EUR.
Tallying these two invoices up gives me 45,827 EUR to pay through my mortgage.
What's next?
As shown above, things are progressing, and so are the costs. But this is only the start. The next steps are as followed:
The foundations– DONE!- Plates of the floors
- Roof
- Pipes (for electricity, water and gas)
- Kitchen
- Temporary delivery (time to move in!)
I will keep you all posted on the progress 😉