Rug buying in Overijse

Who lives here

Overijse counted 4,389 expatriates in 2023, close to one resident in six, with a large French-speaking and English-speaking minority. Unlike Rhode-Saint-Genèse, the municipality does not have language facilities: the administrative language is Dutch and Dutch only.

That profile rings us to sell more often than elsewhere: people move away, they inherit, they change their lives, and the rug does not follow.

The rug market

For a century, from the end of the nineteenth century until after the Second World War, "thousands of greenhouses" growing table grapes shaped the landscape of Overijse, the heart of the Druivenstreek. The heritage inventory still records the villas of the greenhouse growers there, witnesses to the prosperity of this specialised farming. The Druivenfeesten commemorate that industry every August.

That is the circuit through which a rug changes hands here. We are the direct alternative to it: no waiting, no commission, payment the same day.

The building stock

The municipality covers 4,443 hectares with a density of only 577 inhabitants/km², with 59.14% of undeveloped land against 27.17% built up. It is the least dense and the largest town in our area.

It is in that building stock that the rugs we buy lie sleeping: interwar attics, reception rooms, landing cupboards.