Step outside on a Saturday morning in late May, coffee in hand, and the only sound you'll hear is birdsong and the faint rustle of wheat fields beyond the garden hedge. The swimming pond catches the early light. The sauna in the log cabin is warming up. Your AGA cooker is ticking quietly in the kitchen behind you. This is what 312 square meters of well-built Belgian countryside living actually feels like at Maxburgdreef 11 — and it's hard to imagine going back to city noise after a single weekend here.
Hoogstraten sits in the Kempen region of Antwerp province, a stretch of northern Belgium that doesn't shout about itself the way the coast or the Ardennes do. That's exactly the point. The town center, a short drive from the property, revolves around the Sint-Katharinakerk — one of the most striking Gothic churches in Flanders, with a tower you can spot from the surrounding farmland on a clear day. The weekly market on the Vrijheid brings out local vendors selling Kempense asparagus in spring, fresh strawberries from the famous Hoogstraten cooperative (the region produces a significant share of Belgium's strawberry crop), and wheels of aged cheese. It's a proper market town, not a tourist set piece.
The house sits on a generous 1,362 square meters on the quiet Maxburgdreef, a lane flanked by open agricultural land. The rear garden faces south, which means long afternoon sun on the wooden terrace and the custom swimming pond — fed and heated by a heat pump, so it reaches a comfortable temperature well before June and holds it deep into September. Swim in the morning, dry off on the terrace, duck into the log cabin for a sauna session. That combination, in a garden this private, is genuinely rare at this price point in the region.
Inside, the house has been maintained and updated thoughtfully without stripping out its character. Authentic flooring in the entrance hall sets the tone from the moment you walk in. The living room has a gas fireplace, real depth, and flows naturally into the recently renovated veranda — itself glazed generously enough to feel like a proper room, not an afterthought, and also fitted with a gas fireplace. On wet November weekends, when the fields outside go grey and the sky flattens, that veranda earns its keep.
The kitchen deserves a paragraph of its own. It's built around an AGA cooker, which, if you haven't cooked on one, changes how you think about a kitchen entirely. It radiates gentle heat, holds multiple temperatures simultaneously, and produces food — slow-braised rabbit, proper Belgian stoofvlees, Sunday bread — that you simply can't replicate on a standard hob. The kitchen connects to the living room, the entrance hall, and the veranda, so it sits at the actual center of daily life rather than tucked away. Off the back of the kitchen, a hallway leads to the garden, and along the way you pass a cool storage room and a laundry room — practical, unglamorous, and exactly what you need in a working country house.
The ground floor also includes a dedicated office with its own access from the hall. For anyone working remotely — and this property is built for it — having a proper separated workspace matters. There's also a ground-floor bedroom with an en-suite shower room at the rear of the house, which works equally well as a guest room or a private retreat that doesn't require negotiating the stairs.
Upstairs, three further bedrooms are arranged around a renovated bathroom fitted with underfloor heating, a bathtub, walk-in shower, double vanity, and WC. A separate shower room and a walk-in closet round out the first floor. The attic, accessible via a retractable staircase, adds a useful storage tier without eating into living space.
The L-shaped outbuilding to the side of the property is its own quiet asset. It holds an additional garage bay and a covered terrace — the kind of sheltered outdoor space that gets used every single weekend through the Belgian shoulder seasons, when spring rain comes and goes unpredictably and you still want to eat outside.
On the practical side, the numbers hold up well. 29 solar panels reduce running costs meaningfully. The central heating boiler was replaced 18 months ago. Underfloor heating covers the entire ground floor and the first-floor bathroom. An alarm system is already installed. The irrigation system keeps the garden in shape without demanding constant attention. These aren't talking points — they're the difference between a house that runs smoothly and one that doesn't.
The cycling infrastructure around Hoogstraten is extensive and genuinely used. The Kempense cycling network connects to marked routes through Merksplas, Rijkevorsel, and across the Dutch border into Noord-Brabant. In autumn, when the heathlands turn rust and amber, cycling the Kalmthoutse Heide routes about 40 minutes south is one of those experiences that stays with you. The regional parks around Turnhout, roughly 20 minutes east, offer trail walking through pine and birch forests. Antwerp city center — world-class museums, the MAS, the diamond quarter, Michelin-starred tables and excellent frites on Groenplaats — is around 40 minutes by car or reachable by train from Hoogstraten station. Brussels is under 90 minutes.
For international buyers considering this as a second home in Belgium, the purchase process is relatively straightforward. Belgium does not restrict foreign ownership, and the region attracts buyers from the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK in particular. Notary fees and registration taxes apply on top of the purchase price — your solicitor or notary will outline the current rates, which vary depending on use. Short-term rental through platforms like Airbnb is permitted in this area, and a property of this specification — four bedrooms, sauna, swimming pond, garage, outbuilding — commands strong nightly rates, particularly in summer and over Belgian public holiday weekends.
Key features at a glance:
- 4 bedrooms plus a dedicated office, 3 bathrooms across two floors
- South-facing swimming pond heated by heat pump on 1,362m² grounds
- Log cabin with private sauna in the garden
- AGA cooker in a fully fitted country kitchen
- Recently renovated veranda with gas fireplace
- Gas fireplace in the main living room
- 29 solar panels for reduced running costs
- Underfloor heating on ground floor and first-floor bathroom
- Central heating boiler replaced 18 months ago
- L-shaped outbuilding with second garage bay and covered terrace
- Walk-in closet and renovated family bathroom upstairs
- Ground-floor bedroom with en-suite shower room — ideal for guests
- Alarm system, garden irrigation system installed
- Private parking, freestanding wooden storage shed and garage
- 40 minutes to Antwerp city center, close to Belgian-Dutch border cycling routes
If you've been looking for a vacation home in the Belgian countryside that gives you space, privacy, and genuine character without the renovation risk, this house on Maxburgdreef is worth your time. Contact Homestra today to arrange a private viewing — properties at this level of finish and with this combination of outdoor features in the Kempen region move quickly, and this one won't sit on the market long.
