Cohousing
Cohousing units for 30 households
Join an innovative co-housing project in the heart of Ixelles
Volta XL is transforming a historic site, including a former power station and printing works, into a sustainable and dynamic living space. The project, organised under shared governance, aims to combine the benefits of urban living with personal and friendly human links between residents who share the same values.
As well as private homes, the project includes communal areas where residents can meet up whenever they feel like it, for moments of togetherness. There’s a large multi-purpose room for dinner, a cinema screening, a board games evening, etc.; children can play and grow up together in an area on the same level as the garden; people can grow crops, relax, read on the green roof, and so on.
The architectural and technological choices made (geothermal energy, photovoltaic panels, passive insulation) minimise the ecological footprint while reducing energy costs, for a lifestyle that is both sustainable and economical.
Volta XL embodies a new way of living in the city, where mutual aid, sustainability and community go hand in hand.
How to join the project
Do you see yourself in this project and feel an irrepressible urge to join us?
Then you’ve come to the right place, and here’s all the information you need about the process.
First of all, please note that we are a group of families and professionals from different sectors. We are looking for our future neighbours – with desire and commitment – in a collective and participative project. Many of you have contacted us and asked us lots of questions. In order to ensure an efficient, pleasant and smooth process, we have devised the following procedure, which we ask you to respect as far as possible.
Answer our questionnaire
Process
1. Find out all about the project on this site. Think about your needs and contributions.
2. Fill in our questionnaire.
3. We will send you all the information you need afterwards.
4. If you confirm that you would like to continue, you will be invited to a one-to-one meeting with members of the collective to get to know each other better.
5. (Optional) We also invite you to come along to our ‘Café rencontre’: a convivial space where you can ask all your questions, meet the collective and talk to other candidates. You will receive details of these meetings automatically once you have completed our questionnaire.
6. If, after the interview, you still confirm your desire to continue, you will be invited to a final meeting with the whole group and a participative presentation of the values and orientations of the project. After this meeting, we’ll take the time to answer any final questions you may have.
During this process, we will provide you with the plans and the legal and financial information that will eventually enable you to commit to the project with complete transparency and peace of mind.
Cohousing
The two buildings along rue Volta will be converted into a grouped housing scheme comprising 30 homes.
The homes, which will be entirely renovated to passive standards, will range from 1 to 4 bedrooms, and will all feature a large south-facing terrace, a cellar, a fully-equipped kitchen and access to bicycle parking and, as an option, car parking. They have uninterrupted views over the south-east of Brussels (depending on the floor), stretching as far as the canopy of the Forêt de Soignes.
Residents will also have access to 550 m² of communal space, including a bright great room overlooking the park, a green roof (including a garden, vegetable patch and greenhouse) and a guest room.
Available units
To date, 1, 2, 3 and 4-bedroom flats are still available. Here are the price ranges according to floor and surface area:
- 1 bedroom: €340,000 – €396,000 (68 m2)
- 2 bedrooms: €451,000 – €470,000 (77-80 m2)
- 3 bedrooms: € 555,000 – € 623,000 (104-113 m2)
- 4 bedrooms: €807,000 (145 m2)
This budget includes the acquisition of the private and shared spaces, the complete renovation of the homes (including finishing touches) and support for the project. The price also includes secure, sheltered cycle parking per person. Car parking is optional.
This budget does not include costs that we estimate at around 15% of the price of the flat. These costs include:
- Registration fees
- Notary fees
- Surveyor’s fees, lawyer’s fees, financial advice, notary’s fees
- Consultancy services provided by COARCHI
- Other miscellaneous costs
Portraits of the future residents
We were won over by this innovative project and by the strength of a group that shares the vision of a different way of life that is sustainable and rich in links.
The Volta XL collective is for us an opportunity to live in community – among other things because our family is a bit far away. Volta XL offers the chance to build communally and ecologically, to garden and play together!
We joined this project because it allows us to reinvent a collective and convivial way of life. In the city, it’s so easy to ignore your neighbours, and we want to erase these social boundaries so that our neighbours become our friends.
