Business address in Namur: registered office in the Walloon capital

Key takeaways

• Namur is the capital of Wallonia and the seat of the Walloon Parliament and the Walloon Government: a registered office address that signals strong regional roots.
• Setting up in Namur is legal provided the provider is registered with the FPS Economy (law of 29 March 2018).
• Namur lies in the French-language Region: articles and official documents in French.
• The office address is recorded with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE); the business-address contract must attest your right to occupy the address, with no minimum term imposed by law.

Capital of Wallonia, Namur is home to the Walloon Parliament and the Walloon Government: few Belgian cities offer such marked institutional roots for a young company. Setting up a business address in Namur means fixing your company's registered office at this address rather than your private home, without renting offices. This guide details what makes Namur distinctive for an office address, then the legal framework common to all of Belgium and the concrete steps to register your office.

What Namur brings to a registered office address

Namur is not just any Walloon municipality. It is the seat of the regional institutions, which makes it the administrative and political centre of Wallonia. A business address in Namur places your company as close as possible to the Walloon Parliament, the Walloon Government and the regional administrations, a sign of roots appreciated when the activity is aimed at Walloon clients or partners.

The city also owes its position to its geography. Built at the confluence of the Sambre and the Meuse, at the foot of its citadel, Namur occupies a central position in Wallonia, halfway between Brussels and Liège. This centrality translates into genuine accessibility, by motorway as by rail, which eases travel to the country's main hubs.

Its economy is largely turned towards services and the tertiary sector, driven by the presence of the regional administrations and by a dense fabric of SMEs, liberal professions and specialised providers. The economic activity parks of the conurbation, such as Crealys or Ecolys, illustrate this orientation and host companies from varied sectors.

Choosing Namur meant clearly showing that my activity is Walloon, a stone's throw from the regional institutions, without locking myself into an office lease.

The legal framework, identical throughout Belgium

A business address in Namur follows the same federal rules as elsewhere in the country. Two texts structure the operation.

The Companies and Associations Code, in force since 1 May 2019, requires every company under Belgian law to have its statutory seat on Belgian territory. This address appears in the deed of incorporation, is published in the annexes to the Moniteur belge and is recorded with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises. The office can perfectly well be established at the address of a business-address provider.

The law of 29 March 2018 on the registration of company service providers requires anyone who professionally supplies a statutory seat to a company to register with the FPS Economy before operating. This registration has been mandatory since 1 September 2018. In Namur as everywhere, choosing a compliant provider is not an option, it is the condition of validity of your office.

Since Namur lies in the French-language Region, the articles, the deed of incorporation and official correspondence with the authorities are drafted in French. This rule, determined by the linguistic region of the office, applies whatever the founders' nationality.

Business address, private home or rented office

Three options are open to you to fix the office of your Namur company, each meeting a distinct need. A business address at a provider sits between a personal address and a rented office.

Setting up at your private home is possible and free, but the personal address becomes public via the CBE and mixes with private life. A rented office offers a workspace but involves a lease and a recurring cost. A business address keeps the professional address and mail handling, without premises to occupy. Beyond the address, Namur providers often offer complementary services: telephone answering, meeting-room rental, mail digitisation.

The steps to set up your business in Namur

The procedure is identical to that applied in the rest of Belgium and comes down to a few steps.

1. 1

   Choose a registered provider

   Step 1

   Select a Namur business-address provider registered with the FPS Economy and check the proof of its registration.

2. 2

   Sign the business-address contract

   Step 2

   The contract attests your right to occupy the address and formalises the agreed mail-handling services.

3. 3

   State the address in the deed of incorporation

   Step 3

   The office appears in the articles drafted by the notary, in French.

4. 4

   Declare the office to the CBE

   Step 4

   The address is recorded with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises via an approved enterprise counter.

If you are creating your company at the same time, the office declaration is made when registering with the CBE. If the company already exists elsewhere, setting up in Namur involves a transfer of the registered office, that is, an update of the address recorded with the CBE and, where applicable, of the articles.

Before signing your Namur contract

• Check the provider's service-provider registration

  The FPS Economy register is public and consultable online.

• Check the term and termination of the contract

  The law sets no minimum term, but the written contract must attest your right to occupy the address recorded with the CBE.

• Detail the included services and their costs

  Address only, mail handling, telephone answering, meeting rooms: compare offer by offer.

• Ensure the provider's legal compliance

  A real address in Namur, a written contract, an up-to-date CBE register.

Set up your business address in Namur

A registered office address in the Walloon capital, with mail handling, at a registered provider.

Start my business addressBusiness address in Wallonia

On a strictly legal level, a Namur address confers exactly the same rights and obligations as an address in Brussels, in Liège or elsewhere in Belgium. The choice of Namur is therefore first a matter of image and roots: positioning yourself in the capital of Wallonia, as close as possible to its institutions, with a central and accessible address.

Going further

• Setting up a business address in Wallonia: rules, cities and steps, for the full regional framework
• Business address or private home: where to fix your registered office, to arbitrate between a private address and a provider
• Other Walloon cities: Liège, Charleroi and Mons
• The official framework of the registration of company service providers on the FPS Economy website