🍳 No oven in your Brussels apartment? Welcome to the club (and here's how to get around it)

Updated June 2, 2026 by Pierre

We'll start with a non-scientific statistic, but one we can guarantee, having heard all our friends move dozens of times between Saint-Gilles, Ixelles and the lower part of Schaerbeek: One in two Brussels apartments does not have a proper ovenA two-burner cooktop. Sometimes four, if you're lucky. A microwave precariously balanced on top of the fridge. And that's it.

No fan oven. Not even a proper conventional oven. Often, just an empty space under the worktop where, twenty years ago, there might have been something, but the owner preferred not to replace it.

And let's be clear: It's not the tenant's responsibility to spend €800 on a built-in oven that will remain in the landlord's kitchen after they move out.We've all done the math. It makes no sense.

So, what do we do? For years, the answer was: we make do. Pan-fried meals, microwaves, and we accept that we won't be cooking gratins, roast chicken, cookies, or baked salmon. Basically, the life of a tenant in Brussels.

But in the last three or four years, something has changed. And we have to acknowledge it: The air fryer has become the best answer we've ever had to this very specific Brussels problem.

🍟 The air fryer: the oven that the landlord didn't provide (and that you'll take with you to the next lease)

The argument is simple to convince you that a The Airfryer And the investment (between €100 and €300) is worth it… You get back:

• Roast chickencrispy skin included, in 35 minutes
• Homemade fries, real, cut from a Bintje potato, in 20 minutes (without oil bath, without odor throughout the studio)
• Salmon Crispy on the outside, meltingly soft inside, in 12 minutes
• A frozen pizza which really comes out like it came out of the oven (not like "soggy cardboard" from the microwave)
• Roasted vegetables like in a brasserie, with slightly caramelized edges
• The Cookies houseYes, really.

And above all, this is what changes everything for a tenant in Brussels: You take it with youWhen the lease ends and you have to move from the studio in Saint-Gilles to your new favorite Brussels neighborhoodThe air fryer goes in the box. Unlike the built-in oven, which would have been lost to you.

It's an investment that stays with you, not one that increases someone else's apartment's value. For us, it's a silent revolution in rental living in Brussels.

Two pieces of advice from Brussels residents who have tested a few too many models:

1. Don't skimp on capacity. Below 5 liters, you'll be frustrated as soon as there are two of you. For a couple or roommates, aim for 7-8 liters. For a family, look at the models double drawer — It's new, it's great, it lets you cook fries et the chicken at the same time, each at its own temperature.

2. Look at the noise level in decibels. In a Brussels apartment where the kitchen opens onto the living room (which is 95% of the time), an air fryer running at 65 dB for 30 minutes is unbearable. The best models operate at around 55 dB.

👉 To compare models without having to go through four stores from Westland to Rogier, Art & Craft has a rather robust selection, with major brands (Philips, Ninja, Tefal, Princess), free delivery, and — an important detail for a purchase where you are hesitating — 15 days to change your mind.

📺 OLED TVs: the only "living room" investment you'll never regret (and that travels with you too)

Same logic, but this time on the living room side.

In Brussels, living rooms are often quite small. 16, 18, sometimes 22 square meters if you're lucky. And within those dimensions, The quality of the television makes a much bigger difference than the size of the sofa..

We explain why we all ended up migrating to a oled tvand why we think it's the best "long-term" purchase a Brussels tenant can make.

In simple terms, and without jargon: on a conventional TV (LED, LCD, whatever the marketing name), blacks are never truly black. There's always a gray background, a bleed-through. On an OLED, each pixel turns off individually. Black is really black. And everything else, the colours, the contrasts, the dark areas of a series episode, of an Anderlecht-Standard match at night, of a wildlife documentary; becomes something else.

It's the kind of difference you don't really notice in photos on a website. You have to see an OLED screen lit up to understand. And once you've seen it, it's very hard to go back.

Another advantage that we appreciate in Brussels apartments: It's very thinA few millimeters thick on some models. When you live in a narrow mansion with walls you don't want to cut into with an angle grinder, or in a loft in Saint-Gilles where every centimeter counts, it makes all the difference. Most attach to the wall with a standard bracket, and some models resemble a picture frame.

And just like the air fryer, It'll come with you on your next move.A good OLED TV easily lasts 7 to 10 years. It will last you through two or three leases, maybe even a purchase someday. It's anything but money down the drain.

Our advice on size: for the average living room of a Brussels apartment (around 18-22 m²), aim for 55 inches minimum, 65 if you have the spaceBelow that height, you'll regret it within six months. Above that, you really have to move the sofa back, and at our house, we don't always have the space.

👉 To see the current offer, Art & Craft has a selection of OLED TVs from LG, Sony, Samsung, and Philips. Free delivery, 15-day return policy. For a purchase of €1500-€2500, these two details aren't just marketing hype; they're actually worth the money.

🛒 A quick, honest review of Art & Craft (because we've been asked)

A brief aside, because this is the kind of thing we wish we had been told two years ago.

In Brussels, for household appliances, there are generally three options: the large national chains with their shirt-wearing salesmen who don't know much, Amazon (where delivering a 65-inch TV to a Brussels building without an elevator is like playing Russian roulette), or specialized Belgian players.

Art & CraftIt's a store based in Ghent that delivers free of charge throughout Belgium, with customer service that speaks French. et Dutch (we tested it), and the same prices online as in store. Their Kiyoh reviews revolve around 8.7/10 based on nearly 48.000 customer reviewsThis is not a minor detail.

What we particularly appreciate for Brussels residents: home delivery by two people who carry the device up to the third floor without an elevator (yes, it happens more often than you think in this city), and the genuine policy of taking back old TVs, it avoids having to drag your old Samsung to the Ixelles container park on a Saturday morning.