2-Bed Country House with Horse Stables & Forest Access – Vacation Home in Zutendaal



De Hovenstraat 4, 3690 Zutendaal, Belgium, Zutendaal (Belgium)
2 Bedrooms · 2 Bathrooms · 101m² Floor area
€519,000
House
No parking
2 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
101m²
Garden
No pool
Not furnished
Description
On a quiet Sunday morning at De Hovenstraat 4, the only sounds reaching the kitchen window are birdsong from the treeline and the soft shuffle of hooves from the stable out back. That's not a fantasy — that's what life actually feels like here, on 3,659 square metres of green Flemish countryside in Zutendaal, one of the most quietly sought-after corners of the Belgian province of Limburg.
Zutendaal has a nickname locals say with genuine pride: the greenest gem of Flanders. It's not marketing copy. The town sits in the heart of a forested plateau between Genk and Maasmechelen, where cycling paths thread through beech woods and the air carries that particular clean sharpness that only comes from being surrounded by trees. You don't get that in the suburbs. You definitely don't get a sand arena for your horses either.
This is a two-bedroom house with two bathrooms, built in 1974 and comprehensively renovated in 2021 — and the renovation was done properly. Nine solar panels with battery storage, a heat pump system, and full underfloor heating throughout. The EPC label is A. Heating bills here are not the monthly anxiety they are in older country properties. That combination of solid mid-century bones with genuinely modern energy infrastructure is rarer than it sounds in rural Belgium, and it matters enormously for a second home that sits unoccupied in winter.
Step inside and the first thing that registers is the light. The main living room has exposed wooden beams running across the ceiling — original, kept because they're beautiful — and the kind of generous window openings that flood the room in afternoon gold. Soft green tones on the walls, natural wood accents, a comfortable sitting area that makes you want to drop into a chair and stay for the weekend. Which is, of course, exactly the point.
The family room adjacent to it is anchored by a wood-burning stove. On a wet October evening, with the fire going and the garden darkening through the large windows, this room becomes the kind of space that turns a house into a home. It's versatile — hobby room, reading room, second sitting area — but whatever you call it, it delivers on atmosphere.
The kitchen is centred around a freestanding AGA cooker, which sets the tone immediately. This isn't a cook-dinner-and-move-on kitchen; it's a slow Sunday afternoon kitchen, the kind where someone is always hovering nearby with a glass of wine. The AGA is backed up by a built-in refrigerator, dishwasher, oven, and microwave. A separate laundry room sits off to the side. The dining room connects the kitchen to the living spaces in a layout that keeps everything social and open without being a single open-plan box.
Both bedrooms are proper rooms — not the narrow afterthoughts you sometimes find in properties of this era. The main bedroom is genuinely restful, with enough space and enough quiet that you forget entirely that Hasselt is only 25 kilometres down the road. Two additional rooms handle guests, a home office, or children's bedrooms depending on how you use the property. For international buyers using this as a second home, that flexibility matters. The main bathroom has a bathtub, walk-in shower, and washbasin. The second shower room, accessible directly from the garden, is one of those details you don't appreciate until you're walking back from the paddock in muddy boots and realize you don't have to go through the whole house.
Now, the land. Three thousand six hundred and fifty-nine square metres is a lot of ground in the Belgian countryside. The garden is landscaped across several zones: lawn terraces for sitting, fenced paddocks for grazing, and functional outbuildings that include actual horse stables and a sand arena. The property backs directly onto forest — not a view of the forest, not near the forest, but direct access through your own plot. You can ride out from the stable and be under the canopy of trees within minutes.
Equestrian buyers will recognize immediately how rare a setup this is in this part of Flanders. Full facilities — stable, pastures, sand arena, forest access — within the EPC-A envelope of a fully renovated modern home. The market for that intersection is small. The properties that deliver it genuinely are smaller still.
For those without horses, the outdoor space still offers an unusual level of privacy and greenery for this region. The Hoge Kempen National Park, Belgium's only national park, is a short drive from Zutendaal. The Kattevennen outdoor recreation area in Genk has swimming, cycling, and walking trails. In summer, the provincial domain of Bokrijk — an open-air museum and nature area that gets genuinely busy with Belgian families from June through August — is just a twenty-minute drive. Cycling from the property along the LF fietsroutes through the Limburg plateau is the kind of activity that justifies buying a country house in Belgium in the first place.
For practical matters: Hasselt, the provincial capital of Limburg, is under half an hour by car and offers everything from hospital-grade healthcare to decent international restaurants along the Havermarkt. Genk is even closer, with a strong multicultural food scene — the Italian community settled here generations ago and the restaurants around the Vennestraat show it. Brussels Airport is approximately an hour and fifteen minutes by car, and Maastricht in the Netherlands is closer still, giving you access to Amsterdam and beyond via train or flight.
Public transport stops are between 500 and 1,000 metres from the door, and the town centre of Zutendaal itself — bakery, butcher, local café, primary school — is genuinely nearby. This isn't the kind of rural address that requires a car for every single task.
For international buyers considering this as a holiday home or second residence in Belgium, the legal framework is straightforward for EU nationals. Non-EU buyers should take independent advice on Belgian property ownership structures, though ownership of rural residential properties here carries no specific restrictions beyond standard Belgian conveyancing requirements. The Belgian property market in rural Limburg has shown resilience, and properties with equestrian facilities and energy-efficient profiles at this price point are genuinely underrepresented in the current market.
Key features at a glance:
- 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms across 101 m² of living space on a 3,659 m² plot
- EPC label A — solar panels with battery storage, heat pump, full underfloor heating
- Renovated in 2021, move-in ready with modern infrastructure throughout
- Horse stables, sand arena, fenced paddocks, and direct forest access from the plot
- Freestanding AGA cooker in a fully equipped kitchen with separate laundry room
- Exposed wooden beam living room and wood-burning stove family room
- Second shower room with outdoor access — ideal for equestrian or garden use
- Private driveway, carport, parking for three vehicles
- Additional attic storage and multiple flexible rooms for guests or office use
- 25 km from Hasselt, 15 km from Genk, close to Hoge Kempen National Park
- Public transport within 1,000 metres; Brussels Airport approx. 75 minutes by car
- Single-level layout for comfortable, accessible everyday living
- Immediate proximity to cycling routes, forests, and Bokrijk provincial domain
This is the kind of property that rewards the buyer who knows what they're looking for. If you've been searching for a vacation home in Belgium that gives you genuine countryside, genuine horse facilities, and genuine energy efficiency without a renovation project on your hands, De Hovenstraat 4 delivers all three. Get in touch with the Homestra team today to arrange a private viewing — properties with equestrian infrastructure in Zutendaal do not wait long on the market.
Details
- Amount of bedrooms
- 2
- Size
- 101m²
- Price per m²
- €5,139
- Garden size
- 3659m²
- Has Garden
- Yes
- Has Parking
- No
- Has Basement
- No
- Condition
- good
- Amount of Bathrooms
- 2
- Has swimming pool
- No
- Property type
- House
- Energy label
Unknown
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