"I'm 43 and I have secured my financial future"

Erwan is 43 and has already funded his pension. His recipe? A property investment in central Brussels, and long hours of sanding floors, painting walls and other renovation work, back in the early years of his career.

How did you start investing in property?

I was 27, earning a good salary, and I asked myself what to do with the income I did not need at the time. I decided to invest in property.

I went to see a series of bankers with a beaming smile and dozens of spreadsheets. They all laughed in my face, except one. I was able to invest in a building in central Brussels. Its value has multiplied threefold and a half in sixteen years, thanks to my fellow French nationals who keep settling in central Brussels.

If I sold tomorrow, my pension would certainly be secure, but I took a risk: I spent three years renovating the building on my own. I was not a handyman before, let's just say I became one. While my friends were touring festivals, I was hard at work.

I needed a reason to spend my evenings and weekends sanding floors and painting ceilings: I liked the idea of creating social and moral value, of bringing together tenants who are helping build Europe. My current tenants, who are the age I was back then, can no longer do what I did. Property in Brussels no longer offers the same prospects. Perhaps they would not want to do it either. I did postpone part of my youth, that much is clear.

Today, climate change is the biggest threat to a property investment. Investors must navigate political decisions, adapt, and keep offering a liveable home.

What was your financial background?

I have always been comfortable with money as a tool and with building projects. I turned to economics and finance for my university studies.

In that world, I was trained to be a sprinter. Nobody taught me that a long-distance race awaited me though, a marathon to be precise: 42 kilometres, or years of pension contributions, at the very least.

What did you do with your first salary?

I went to buy Hugo Boss suits at a factory outlet in Stuttgart. Suits were required in my first professional environment.

When I turned my new suit jacket inside out, sold as locally made, I saw the label: Made in Romania! That shocked me, and led me, a few years and detours later, to get involved in social projects in Romania.