Ghentculture & etiquette

Belgium's single permit is decided by the region where the job sits, so a Ghent job is judged by Flanders — not by the federal state and not by Brussels. Flanders states its floors annually rather than monthly: €48,912 gross for a highly skilled worker, €39,129.60 for under-30s on a local contract, €78,259 for management, and €63,586 for an EU Blue Card, which is set at 130% of the average gross annual salary. From 1 January 2026 the rest tightened too: level-2 low-skilled roles no longer qualify at all, the mid-skilled migration list lost functions, level 3–4 roles need a VDAB vacancy published for nine weeks first, and the authorities can demand proof your diploma is genuine. On top of the federal contribution, Flanders charges its own non-refundable €180 retribution on applications lodged from 1 September 2026 and will not start processing until it is paid. Advice written for Brussels is wrong here in both directions.

Third-country nationals on a long-stay visa must report to the city within eight working days of arriving. You receive a Bijlage 15, and then a wijkagent calls at the address to confirm you live there. Until that report is positive there is no national register number, and without the number there is no eID, no bank account, no ziekenfonds and no phone contract. Put your name on the letterbox and the doorbell the day you get the keys, and tell your neighbours you have moved in. A failed check restarts the whole sequence and routinely costs people a month.

Non-EU newcomers aged eighteen or over with a permit of more than three months, registered in a Flemish municipality, must follow the inburgering path: social orientation, Dutch, individual guidance towards work, and diploma evaluation, with 80% attendance required across every part. Flanders and Brussels have only three delivery bodies between them and two of them are cities: Antwerp uses Atlas and Ghent uses Amal, so you will not be dealing with the regional agency here. The part that catches people is money. Since September 2023 the newcomer pays €180 for the social orientation classes and first test and €180 for the Dutch classes and first test — retakes cost more, and books are extra. The identical programme is free of charge in Brussels, twenty-five minutes away by train.

Belgium's additional communal tax is a percentage added to the income tax you already owe, voted by each municipality and published by FPS Finance every year. For assessment year 2026 Ghent charges 6.5%, against 7.0% in Antwerp, 6.9% in Bruges and 6.7% in Leuven — while the City of Brussels charges 4.9% and Liège 8.0%. Nationally the table runs from 0% in Knokke-Heist to 9.0% in Mesen. It is a real difference on identical income and it is your registered address on 1 January that fixes which rate you pay for that year, so a move between municipalities in December and in January are different financial decisions.

Since 1 October 2023 the city has required a conformiteitsattest before a new lease is signed on a dwelling more than thirty years old — which in Ghent means most of the rental stock. The certificate is issued by the mayor within sixty days of the request, confirms the home meets the Flemish standards on safety, health and basic comfort, and is valid for ten years. It is the landlord's obligation, not yours, and asking to see it costs nothing. If a landlord cannot produce one for an old house, that tells you something before you have handed over three months' deposit.

The 2017 circulation plan was introduced over a single weekend: around eighty streets changed and 2,500 signs went up. The city centre is now six sectors around a restricted-traffic core, and you cannot pass from one sector to another through the middle — you come back out to the R40 inner ring and go round. The car-free area grew 128% overnight and fourteen locations were closed to most motor traffic permanently. Separately, everything inside the ring road is a low emission zone with camera enforcement, so the two regimes stack. Ghent was named Cycling City 2024 for a reason: living here without a car is easier than living here with one.