Where Not to Buy a House in the Netherlands: Five Areas We Never Recommend
Five regions we keep off every expat client shortlist. None of them for reasons of crime.
If you are looking for where not to buy a house in the Netherlands, the answer has very little to do with crime statistics. The areas we exclude from every expat client shortlist are excluded for industrial emissions, earthquakes, ground movement and aircraft noise — documented problems that belong to the location and stay there long after you get the keys. There are five: the IJmond region around Tata Steel, the north-east of Groningen, Geleen and Stein beside Chemelot, the former mining towns of South Limburg, and specific streets under the Schiphol flight paths.
Key takeaways
Crime-based “worst places” rankings answer a different question than the one a buyer is actually asking.
A neighbourhood’s social problems can reverse. Emissions, seismic activity, mining subsidence and flight paths do not.
Four of the five zones are documented by RIVM, the national institute for public health and the environment.
Under Schiphol the risk is block by block, not town by town — several municipalities are partly fine and partly not.
For renting, most of this is liveable. For buying, it comes back the day you sell.
Why don’t the usual “worst places to live in the Netherlands” lists help a buyer?
Search that phrase in English and you get safety rankings: pickpockets around Amsterdam Centraal, drugs in Rotterdam Zuid, unemployment figures for Sittard-Geleen. Useful if you are choosing a hotel. Close to useless if you are choosing a house.
A neighbourhood with a rough name can be a perfectly good purchase. Reputations in this country shift, sometimes within a decade. A quiet, green, well-kept village can be a bad purchase, because what is wrong with it sits in the air, in the soil, or in the flight path above it — and none of that improves when the street does.
So we split location risk into two kinds. Social risk can turn around. Physical risk stays with the building.
IJmond: what does buying next to Tata Steel mean in practice?
IJmuiden, Wijk aan Zee, Velsen-Noord and Beverwijk — the western part in particular — sit next to the Tata Steel works.
RIVM has documented air pollution, noise and odour across this area. Whatever happens with the plant politically, the buyer’s position stays the same: this is the most thoroughly documented industrial nuisance case in the country, in English as well as Dutch. Every future buyer of your house will find it in an afternoon.
North-east Groningen: is the earthquake problem over?
It is not. Groningen is a wonderful province, and Delfzijl, Appingedam, Loppersum and Zeerijp are the part of it we stay out of.
The gas field is closed. The earthquakes continued anyway — in November 2025 a magnitude 3.4 quake struck near Zeerijp. The state is still funding damage compensation and the structural reinforcement of buildings, which tells you the file is open rather than closed.
Geleen and Stein: what is the problem with Chemelot?
South Limburg is one of the loveliest parts of the country: hills, space, long views. Which makes this one particularly annoying.
Geleen and Stein border Chemelot, a site holding roughly 60 chemical companies. RIVM has documented an elevated noise load there, along with exposure to a range of pollutants.
Why is coal mining still a buyer’s problem in Kerkrade, Brunssum, Landgraaf and Heerlen?
The mines closed decades ago. The ground underneath them did not settle.
In Kerkrade, Brunssum, Landgraaf and parts of Heerlen, ongoing damage to buildings caused by ground movement is officially recognised. For a buyer that is two separate questions: the state of the house today, and the question every future buyer will put to you — mijnschade?
Which areas under the Schiphol flight paths should you check?
This is where advice at town level breaks down. Under the routes, the difference between a good street and a bad one can be a few hundred metres.
RIVM has documented sleep disturbance among 21% of residents on average in the affected zones.
Where we look hard before anything else:
Uithoorn, on the De Legmeer side
Aalsmeer
Uitgeest
And where the answer depends entirely on the block, so we check noise exposure street by street: Amstelveen, Buitenveldert, Zwanenburg, Halfweg, Assendelft and Nieuw-Vennep.
Is renting in these areas different from buying?
Yes, and that is why our advice splits. As a tenant you are exposed to the nuisance but not to the asset. If the noise wears you down, you give notice and leave.
As an owner you carry it twice: while you live there, and again on the day you sell, to a buyer who will have read the same RIVM pages you are reading now.
How do you spot this on funda before you bid?
Look at time on market rather than at the photographs.
Correctly priced homes in most of the Randstad are gone in about a fortnight. In the areas above, comparable homes sit for months. That gap is the market pricing in something the listing text will never mention. When a house looks like unusual value and nothing around it is selling, the discount is rarely a gift — this is the same hyper-local gap that makes national average prices misleading for expat buyers.
The one part of a house you cannot renovate
My colleagues and I do not work in these places, and we have never put one of them on a client’s shortlist. Our conscience is clear on that.
You can change a kitchen, a layout, a roof, an energy label. You cannot change the ground under the house or the air above it. That is the part worth being conservative about — and it is why our pre-purchase research starts with the location rather than the listing.
If you are weighing up a specific address and want to know what sits under it and above it before you bid, write to us at team@expatgate.nl.
FAQ
Which areas do you never recommend for buying in the Netherlands?
Five: the IJmond around Tata Steel (IJmuiden, Wijk aan Zee, Velsen-Noord, western Beverwijk); north-east Groningen (Delfzijl, Appingedam, Loppersum, Zeerijp); Geleen and Stein next to Chemelot; the former mining towns of South Limburg (Kerkrade, Brunssum, Landgraaf, parts of Heerlen); and streets directly under the Schiphol flight paths.
Is it safe to buy a house in Groningen now that the gas field is closed?
Closing the field did not end the seismic activity. A magnitude 3.4 earthquake struck near Zeerijp in November 2025, and the state continues to fund damage compensation and building reinforcement. The rest of the province is a different matter — this concerns the north-east.
Does Schiphol noise affect a whole town or only part of it?
Usually only part. In Amstelveen, Buitenveldert, Zwanenburg, Halfweg, Assendelft and Nieuw-Vennep, exposure varies from one block to the next, so it has to be checked per address rather than per municipality.
How do I check noise and environmental exposure for a specific address?
Start with RIVM data and the municipal noise maps, then compare how long similar homes in that street have been listed against the wider region. A pre-purchase research report pulls both together for one address before you make an offer.
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Expat Gate helps internationals buy property in the Netherlands with pre-purchase research and buyer representation. Choosing a country rather than a street? Our international project expatgate.com compares residence and relocation options worldwide.
