Saturday morning. You wake up to the sound of absolute nothing — no traffic, no sirens, just birdsong drifting in through bedroom windows that face a south-oriented garden still glistening from overnight dew. By the time you've made coffee in the Miele-fitted kitchen, sunlight is already cutting across the parquet floors, freshly sanded and refinished in 2023, and the heated indoor pool is sitting at exactly the temperature you set it to last night from your phone. That's not a fantasy. That's just a regular morning at Jachtlaan 23.
Balen doesn't get the press that Brussels or Bruges attract, and honestly, that's a feature rather than a flaw. This is the Kempen region — a quietly confident corner of northern Belgium where pine forests stretch for kilometres, the Beverlo Canal cuts a calm silver line through the landscape, and the De Most nature reserve sits close enough to reach on foot or bike before lunch. Locals cycle the Kempense Meren route, a 50-kilometre trail threading past heathland, sand dunes, and the glittering Mol lakes, and they do it on a Tuesday afternoon without elbowing through crowds. Life here moves at a pace that feels almost conspicuously sane.
The villa itself sits on 2,536 square metres of fully landscaped grounds on Jachtlaan, one of Balen's most composed residential streets — wide, tree-lined, unhurried. Step through the front door and the entrance hall immediately communicates something: this is not a house that tries too hard. The proportions are generous without being theatrical. Natural light floods in through oversized windows that frame the garden like living paintings, and the Crestron home automation system hums quietly in the background, waiting for input via iPad or built-in screen. Lighting, heating, irrigation, music — all of it responsive, all of it controllable remotely, which matters when you're splitting time between this property and another address a few countries away.
At 574 square metres of living space, the layout has room to breathe. Five full-sized bedrooms, a multifunctional room, two bathrooms, a dedicated home office, and — this is the detail that makes people pause — garages with underfloor heating and windows that could comfortably be converted into ground-floor bedrooms without touching the garden footprint. The open-plan kitchen runs Miele and Smeg appliances including a steam oven, and it's the kind of space that turns a Saturday dinner into an event. Built-in speakers pull audio from Spotify or whatever platform you prefer, and the sound carries through the rooms with the kind of consistency you don't expect until you've spent an evening in here.
Then there's the wellness wing. The heated indoor pool measures 4.5 by 10 metres, long enough for proper laps and wide enough for an afternoon of doing nothing in particular. Adjacent to it: a sauna and a Turkish steam bath. Taken together, these are not features you'd normally find outside a five-star property, and they shift the daily rhythm of the house entirely. A half-hour in the steam room before dinner on a grey November evening isn't a treat here — it's just Tuesday.
The private cinema and the 57-square-metre room styled after an Amsterdam brown café — warm timber, ambient lighting, a space that practically demands a Trappist beer from the Westmalle Abbey 40 kilometres west — round out the entertainment picture. These are rooms with genuine personality. They were designed for use, and they show it.
Outside, a landscape architect shaped every corner of the garden. The fish pond has a working waterfall and fountain. Bamboo planting provides a year-round green screen. A covered, heated terrace extends the outdoor season well into October, and the automatic irrigation system syncs directly with the home automation setup. Solar Edge panels, two 10,000-litre rainwater tanks, a 30,000-litre underground compost system, mechanical ventilation, underfloor heating throughout — the energy infrastructure here is serious, and the EPC score reflects it. Running costs stay low. That matters whether you're here full-time or arriving for eight weeks a year.
The modernisation programme completed across 2023 and 2024 covered parquet refinishing, full interior and exterior repainting, pool system renewal, new solar panels, new air conditioning units, and a new shower installation. The result is a property that needs nothing from you except occupation. Move in, drop your bags, swim a length.
For international buyers considering a second home in Belgium, Balen occupies a practical sweet spot. Hasselt is 30 kilometres east — a compact city with a serious food scene anchored by restaurants like Mathias Daelman's work and the annual Jeneverfeesten, Belgium's famous gin festival in October. Antwerp is under an hour by car, with direct Thalys and Intercity connections to Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris. Brussels Airport sits roughly 70 kilometres southwest. Liège Airport, useful for certain European routes, is comparable in distance east. The N18 and E313 motorways keep the wider Kempen region genuinely accessible.
Belgium's property market for foreign buyers is well-established and relatively transparent. Non-resident EU and non-EU buyers face no ownership restrictions. Registration taxes and notary fees apply at purchase — typically totalling around 12–15% depending on structure — and a Belgian notaire will guide you through the process efficiently. Rental yields in Kempen, particularly for high-specification properties with wellness amenities, have strengthened in recent years as the domestic staycation and short-let markets grew post-pandemic. A property of this specification has genuine short-let appeal for the Antwerp and Brussels professional market seeking weekend retreats — the pool and cinema alone differentiate it sharply from standard holiday inventory.
Summers in Balen run warm and green, the kind of continental warmth that makes the terrace functional from May through September. Winters are mild by northern European standards — colder than coastal Belgium, but the De Most heathland turns extraordinary in November when the last colour drains out of the landscape and the paths are empty. Ice skating occasionally appears on the frozen canal edges in hard Januaries. In spring, the cycling paths through Mol and Dessel fill up again, and the roadside asparagus stands open along the N141 — white Belgian asperges, blanched and served with melted butter, one of the most underrated seasonal rituals in the whole country.
Key features at a glance:
— 574 m² of living space on a 2,536 m² south-facing landscaped plot
— 5 bedrooms plus a multifunctional room and dedicated home office
— Heated indoor pool (4.5 x 10 m), sauna, and Turkish steam bath
— Private cinema and 57 m² Amsterdam brown café-style entertainment room
— Fully fitted Miele and Smeg kitchen with steam oven
— Crestron home automation controlling lighting, heating, music, and irrigation remotely
— 24 SolarEdge solar panels with excellent EPC rating
— Underfloor heating throughout, LG air conditioning, mechanical ventilation
— Two garages with electric doors, EV charging stations, and underfloor heating
— South-facing garden with fish pond, waterfall, covered heated terrace, and garden house
— Two 10,000-litre rainwater tanks and 30,000-litre underground compost system
— Advanced alarm system connected to a central monitoring station
— Fully modernised 2023–2024: floors, painting, pool, solar, HVAC
— Walking and cycling access to De Most nature reserve and Beverlo Canal
— 30 minutes to Hasselt, under 60 minutes to Antwerp and Brussels Airport
Properties at this specification level in the Kempen region come to market infrequently, and those that do rarely arrive move-in ready. This one does. If you're looking for a vacation home in Belgium that works as hard as you want it to — or as quietly as you need it to — Jachtlaan 23 is worth your full attention.
Get in touch with Homestra today to arrange a private viewing or to request the full technical dossier. This is the kind of property that makes more sense in person than on a screen.
