Step outside on a Saturday morning in Meerle and the first thing you notice is the silence—not the heavy, empty kind, but the alive kind. Birds in the tree line behind the garden, a light wind moving through the mature oaks, and nothing else. No traffic noise, no urban hum. Just the particular quiet that only comes when a house sits at the edge of a forest on a generous plot of land, with no immediate neighbors rushing past. This is Lage Rooy, a small residential lane in one of Belgium's most underrated rural corners, and this three-bedroom bungalow has been making that morning possible for its owners for years.
The plot alone—roughly 1,054 square metres—sets the tone for everything else. The rear garden is a proper park-like space: a stone terrace that catches afternoon sun, a wide lawn rolling toward mature trees and ornamental borders, a gazebo for evenings when the light goes golden, a pond that draws dragonflies in summer, and a wooden storage shed tucked neatly out of sight. The house wraps around this garden on two sides, so the sense of being inside a green envelope is constant. Multiple sets of doors open directly onto it from the living room, the dining room, and the master bedroom, which means the garden isn't just something you look at—it's somewhere you actually live.
Inside, the footprint is 217 square metres across two floors, organized with real intelligence around the ground-floor master suite. That bedroom, roughly 15.5 square metres, opens via French doors onto the rear garden and connects directly to a dedicated walk-in closet of about 7.5 square metres with fitted wardrobes. The en-suite bathroom—around 9 square metres—has a walk-in shower with a glass partition, a full bathtub, a vanity unit, and a wall-mounted toilet with a designer radiator finishing things off. For anyone looking at this as a second home or a vacation base, the fact that all primary sleeping and bathing happens on one level is genuinely useful. Guests take the first floor; owners take the ground.
The living room is the social engine of the place. At roughly 50 square metres in an L-shape, it centres on a natural stone fireplace fitted with a gas fire—the kind of feature that justifies owning a Belgian country property in October, when the Kempen region goes auburn and copper and the evenings turn cool fast. Sliding doors open the whole south-facing wall to the garden, and the slate flooring underfoot, heated from below, runs continuously through the kitchen, dining room, and hallway, giving the ground floor a unified warmth that feels considered rather than assembled.
The kitchen is fitted with granite countertops and a full suite of built-in appliances: induction hob, combination oven, a second conventional oven, stainless steel extractor, dishwasher, and an integrated fridge-freezer. A cool pantry sits adjacent—a small detail, but one that matters during long summer stays when you're shopping at the Saturday market in Hoogstraten and coming home with too much to fit in a standard fridge. The dining room, at about 15 square metres, has two sets of tilt-and-turn doors opening to the front garden, giving it a different outdoor relationship than the living room. You can eat breakfast in morning light from the front, then move to the terrace by midday as the sun shifts.
Upstairs, two bedrooms each run to about 17 square metres—genuinely large, not developer-generous. The rear bedroom has its own shower cabin and washbasin, and access to roughly 20 square metres of attic storage where the Buderus HR combi boiler lives. The front bedroom gets a Velux skylight and forest glimpses. Both rooms feel like proper guest or family spaces, not afterthoughts.
The energy picture here is serious. An energy label B, underfloor heating throughout the ground floor, 17 solar panels paired with two battery storage units, and a complete insulation package covering roof, walls, and floor with double glazing throughout. Running costs in Belgian properties of this size can be significant, but the solar setup with battery storage meaningfully reduces dependence on the grid, particularly across summer months when a vacation home tends to sit empty and still accumulate bills. This one earns energy rather than just spending it.
The attached garage—around 20 square metres—is accessible from inside the house, has an automatic door, and connects to the garden via a side entrance. A carport and a wide driveway handle three cars comfortably, which matters here, because Meerle is a village of about 2,000 people and car access is how life operates. The A58 motorway is roughly ten minutes away. Breda is less than 30 kilometres north—a proper Dutch city with a cathedral, a weekly market on the Grote Markt, good restaurants along the Havermarkt, and an Intercity train station for onward connections. Eindhoven Airport, which serves a wide range of European low-cost routes, is about 40 minutes by car, making this viable as a long-weekend destination from almost anywhere in northern Europe.
Hoogstraten itself, the main market town in this part of the Kempen, is minutes away. Its central square has a weekly market, a 16th-century Gothic church—Sint-Katharinakerk—that dominates the skyline for kilometres around, and enough cafes and restaurants to cover a long weekend without repetition. The town is also known for its strawberry cultivation; in late May and June the surrounding fields are in full production, and local farm shops sell them warm from the field. It's that kind of place—agricultural, unhurried, rooted in seasonal rhythms that feel increasingly rare.
The broader Kempen plateau, which stretches across this corner of the Antwerp province into the Netherlands, is cycling country. Hundreds of kilometres of dedicated cycling routes connect villages, nature reserves, and heathlands. The Merksplas Colony, a 19th-century working colony turned nature reserve, is reachable by bike from Meerle. The Liereman Nature Reserve near Oud-Turnhout is another regular destination for hikers and mountain bikers. Winters here are mild by northern European standards—cold enough for atmosphere, rarely extreme—and springs are long and green, with the Kempen heather coming into purple bloom by August and holding through September.
For international buyers considering Belgium as a second home market, a few practical notes. From January 2025, transfer tax on a primary residence purchase sits at 2% of the purchase price—significantly lower than in many comparable European markets—though buyers who already own property elsewhere pay 12%. Notary fees run higher than in the Netherlands. There is no cooling-off period after signing the purchase agreement in Belgium, so due diligence before signing is essential. A deposit of 10% is standard at signing. Belgian mortgage financing requires working through a Belgian bank, which international buyers should factor into their timeline; brokers who specialize in cross-border Belgian purchases can smooth this considerably.
This property is move-in ready—no project work, no deferred maintenance, no awkward renovation decisions to make before you can enjoy your first weekend here. It functions equally well as a permanent residence, a long-stay vacation base, or a second home with rental potential during the months you're not using it. The Kempen region has a steady domestic tourism market from the Netherlands and from Antwerp, and a well-presented, large-plot property like this one is uncommon enough to command attention.
Key features at a glance:
- Three bedrooms, two bathrooms across 217 square metres
- Generous 1,054 m² plot with park-style landscaped garden, pond, gazebo, and terrace
- Ground-floor master suite with en-suite bathroom and walk-in wardrobe
- ~50 m² L-shaped living room with natural stone gas fireplace and garden access
- Granite-topped kitchen with full suite of built-in appliances and cool pantry
- Slate flooring with underfloor heating across entire ground floor
- 17 solar panels with dual battery storage, energy label B
- Attached garage (auto door, internal access), carport, three-car driveway
- Two upstairs bedrooms (~17 m² each), rear bedroom with shower and washbasin
- ~20 m² attic storage with Buderus HR combi boiler (installed 2013)
- Velux skylights, double glazing, full roof/wall/floor insulation
- Forest-edge location on quiet residential lane in Meerle village
- 10 minutes to A58, 30 minutes to Breda, 40 minutes to Eindhoven Airport
- Belgian transfer tax from 2% for primary residence buyers (from Jan 2025)
- Move-in ready condition, no works required
If you've been thinking about a second home in Belgium's Kempen region—or simply want to understand what a property like this means in practice for your lifestyle and finances—reach out through Homestra to arrange a viewing. Properties on plots this size, in locations this quiet, at this price point, don't stay available for long in this part of Belgium.
