Sing it loud! House buyers join music lovers in choosing Rotterdam

Rotterdam will be in the global spotlights when some 180 million viewers turn on next year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Expats won’t lose anything in quality of life living in Rotterdam compared with other Dutch cities like The Hague or Amsterdam – and people are 100% convinced.’ Research from the Rabobank shows that sale prices in Rotterdam rose most of the Netherlands’ four biggest cities from 2017 to 2018, increasing by 14.5%. Everything is very easy for a commute with public transport and by bike, and a two-bed apartment can be €250,000 to €350,000 for 90 to 100 square metres.’ He adds: ‘I just had a couple buy a 140 metre square house with a 15-metre garden in Hillegersberg for below €500,000 – a big house where they can live several years while they build their whole family. As a comparison, in Amsterdam for this price you could buy a 60 square metre apartment and in The Hague a 90 square metre apartment but not a house!’ The supply of housing is also good in Rotterdam, meaning more choice and less competition when bidding on a home – something that is quite the opposite for buyers in The Hague and Amsterdam. ‘There are houses, there are apartments, there are skyscrapers – everything is there and it’s on the market.’ Although Rotterdam has traditionally been seen as a working city, it is also a place with great diversity of things to do: the harbour, enough film, culture and art festivals to be given the 2015 IFEA World Festival and Event City Award, and plenty of nightlife, particularly on the Witte de Withstraat.