A bit of history
I moved to Amsterdam from the UK in 2003 and worked as a Derivatives Fund Manager for a Pension Fund —lots of playing with numbers and investmenty kind of things. My accommodation was paid for by my employers for the first 6 months which is very common amongst international companies who recruit expats. After that, I had to decide where to live and whether to rent or buy.
I knew I wanted to settle in Amsterdam, I mean it really is the best place to live in the world. However, I wasn't happy paying landlords huge amounts of cash (sound familiar?). I analysed the costs involved in buying my own home and it old made sense to get on the Amsterdam property ladder.
The big search began which has to be one of the most frustrating projects I have ever undertaken. Although nearly all property for sale in The Netherlands is listed under one website (Funda), which was a good start, I didn't understand the language and a Dutch-English dictionary wasn't much help. For example, I realised that the space being sold (in square metreage) could be situated over say the 2nd and 4th floors (but not the 3rd) and '3 kamers' (3 rooms) did not mean 2 bedrooms, a room which is 2m x 2m is a double bedroom in Holland. The quirkyness of many Amsterdam apartment layouts was irritating, not endearing to me. Many of these details were not apparent until I stepped inside the property.
Knowing what a fiercely competitive and cut-throat business, estate agency is in the UK, I was surprised that virtually all my email enquiries to makelaars went unanswered. By not speaking Dutch, I could hardly pronounce the street names so I thought email contact would be easier! When I did finally make contact with a makelaar about a property I wanted to see, I was told that viewing anytime after 5pm or at weekends was impossible. How frustrating! Did these people want to make any sales?
I didn't understand any of the documentation, which was all in Dutch and back then Google Translate wasn't an option. I had no idea what questions to ask or how to construct an offer.
A whopping 8 months later, I found a wonderful apartment, negotiated what I thought was a suitable purchase price, arranged the mortgage and moved in soon after. In hindsight, I shouldn't have bought the apartment. The Housing Association (VVE) was a nightmare: It basically didn't exist; there had been no maintenance on the building, which was very old, and no one wanted to do any; one of my neighbours caused me 10 years of stress, bordering on depression; another one started airbnbing to tourists without consent so I was ultimately, deeply unhappy there. It took me 6 years to find my new, dream home in 2014. I now live in Amstelveen and I absolutely love it.
My depressing account is not unique, it was and still is typical of several expat friends' experiences so I decided to do something about it and started providing bespoke assistance for house hunting expats in and around Amsterdam. 13 years on and I am still extremely passionate about what I do and I have branched out further and further, covering 4 provinces now. I will not let clients make the same mistakes I did and I still get a huge thrill seeing people's dreams come true.
In 2020, I made the decision to become Dutch. There is so much to love about this wonderful country and it's people. The diversity is something hugely important to me but so is the heritage. I will soon be taking my exams so that I can throw away my British passport and proudly take on a beautiful Dutch one. My fellow makelaars were extremely patient with me at first and then nothing but wonderful to me ever since. They know I know my stuff and I have been well and truly welcomed into the fold. So coinciding with becoming Dutch, I changed my company name, after all, everyone knows Makelaar Kate!
Kate Holdsworth, owner of Makelaar KateContact
N:Kate Holdsworth
P:+31 64 661 3315
E:info@makelaarkate.nl