u/miss18363

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are considering putting an offer on a house in Landsmeer, and we'd love to hear from people who live there or have lived there.

A few things we're curious about:

- How do you like living there overall? What is the best part about living there?

- Does it feel too quiet or isolated, or is it a good balance with Amsterdam being nearby?

- How's the community? Is it easy to meet people, especially as expats or young families?

- Are there enough shops, restaurants, cafes, and other everyday amenities, or do you find yourself going into Amsterdam a lot?

- How reliable is public transport, especially in the evenings and on weekends?

- Is it a good place for raising children?

- Any issues with flooding or water management that locals think about?

- Are there any downsides you wish you'd known before moving?

We're currently deciding between Landsmeer and Amsterdam Noord, so any honest experiences, both positive and negative, would be really helpful!

I see a lot of posts here about buying vs renting, moving areas etc. I’m currently looking to buy a place myself, and honestly one thing I struggle with is finding real insider info about neighborhoods. Of course I check things like AlleCijfers and Leefbarometer, but those only tell part of the story.

Thought it could be useful if people share their actual experience living in different areas. So like this we can help each others.

Write:

- your neighborhood

- if you’d recommend it

- if it feels safe

- biggest pros and cons

I can start (31F).

My neighborhood is Elzenhagen Noord in Amsterdam Noord.

Pros:

- super close to the metro, and then you’re in the city center in 4 minutes

- very close to Het Twiske, so great cycling and walking areas nearby

- shopping is honestly very convenient, Action, Lidl, Dirk, AH, Jumbo, Normal etc all nearby

- a lot of newer apartments with floor heating, parking spaces, high energy labels etc

- generally cheaper than similar areas across the river

- smaller parks, grass areas and water around, great for walking my dog

- I personally feel safe here

Cons:

- the area directly next to the metro can get a bit trashy sometimes

- there’s been construction work and pipe works going on since October, which is pretty annoying

- actual houses are very expensive, a lot are 700k+, and many apartments are rentals, so buying options are limited unless your budget is pretty high

- feels very residential which can be a pro or a con

I d gladly buy a house in my neighborhood if I could afford it, so recommendation from me.

Curious to hear other neighborhoods and honest opinions.

Moved to the Netherlands about 2 years ago and like everywhere, there are good and bad sides. But I started noticing that a lot of the “good” here is actually in small things people probably dont even notice and take it for granted.

Curious what yours are! I can start:

First one is my dog. This one is actually big for me. He’s anxious and reacts to other dogs, and where I lived before there were a lot of stray dogs, so walks were stressful and sometimes even a bit scary. Here there are basically no strays, so I can just go out and walk him without overthinking it. Before moving, only my husband was doing most of the walks because of that.

Pavements. This sounds stupid but it’s not. You can actually walk on them. Not full of cars, not constantly stepping into the road because someone parked everywhere. I didn’t realise how annoying that was until it just… wasn’t a thing anymore.

Air quality was one of the main reasons I even considered moving. It’s not perfect here, but day to day it feels so much better than what I was used to.

Also random but customer service. We ordered IKEA furniture and literally half of it didn’t arrive. We called them, listed like 50 missing items, and they just sent everything the next day. No back and forth, no questioning if we’re lying, nothing. Where I’m from, we had an Ikea chair break after a month because of a factory issue and they didn’t want to replace it even with proof. So yeah, this still surprises me

There’s green everywhere. Even if you’re not next to a big park, there are always small parks, trees, something. It just makes everyday life nicer without you even noticing it.

April to October is honestly amazing. The long days still feel a bit unreal to me. In summer you finish work and you still have so much daylight left, it actually feels like you get a second day after work.

Flowers everywhere and not expensive. I never used to buy flowers regularly, now I just get a bouquet every week or two and it somehow makes home feel nicer.

And summers are actually usable. It doesn’t get crazy hot, so you can go outside during the day, walk, run, sit somewhere without feeling like you’re melting.

Anyway, these are just few of mine for now. I d live to read more examples from others!

I’m 31, moved to NL a while ago and only recently got to a point where I can set aside a bit of money every month for investing. Where I’m from no one really invested or talked about it, so I’m basically starting from zero. I just want to start small and build the habit first before I go deeper into it. I downloaded Trading 212 because it looked simple, but also feels like I might be missing something and oversimplifying the whole thing. I keep seeing ETFs everywhere but not sure if that’s actually the right place to start or just what everyone repeats. Any tips for a complete beginner or stuff you wish you knew so I don’t do something stupid early on? Especially in NL context as well?