Buying a house in the Soesterkwartier (Amersfoort): how to reach the owners
The Soesterkwartier is a neighbourhood where little comes up for sale and much of it changes hands without ever reaching Funda. If you want to live here, a personal letter to the owners in a few chosen streets gives you a better chance than waiting for a listing.
Written by Jiri, estate agent in Maastricht and founder of DoorLetter.
Updated on 6 October 2026.
The Soesterkwartier is the Amersfoort neighbourhood where people buy a first house right by the station and then no longer want to leave. Little comes free, and the 1930s houses with a garden in particular often change hands without being on Funda for long. They go to a neighbour who wants to move up, to someone from the family, or to someone who had already let it be known that he wanted to live here.
It is the first real working-class neighbourhood of Amersfoort, which grew along the old road to Soest after the railways built a workshop there in the early twentieth century. Many of the first residents worked for the railway; the neighbourhood museum is in a worker's house from 1912. In the Bomen- en Bloemenbuurt and along the Soesterweg there are more workers' houses, and there is also more rented housing there. The Rivierenbuurt is mainly from the 1930s, with semi-detached houses among other things. On the west side the neighbourhood runs on to the sports fields and the woods. The house in greatest demand, a 1930s house with a garden in the Rivierenbuurt, is also the one that comes free least.
If I were searching here, I would start with the Spaarnestraat or the Grebbestraat in the Rivierenbuurt and choose a few houses there where I really see myself living. I would send those residents a short letter: who I am, why the Soesterkwartier, and that I am going to live there myself. People in the Soesterkwartier are proud of their neighbourhood's history; they would rather sell to someone who understands something of that than to an investor.
The average sale price in Amersfoort per year since 1995
Streets people ask about
These are the streets most often named by people searching in the Soesterkwartier. Choose one or two where you would really want to live, not the whole list.
Soesterweg · Spaarnestraat · Grebbestraat · Dollardstraat · Primulastraat · Noordewierweg
Postcode area 3812.
Other neighbourhoods in Amersfoort
This page in Dutch: Huis kopen in het Soesterkwartier.
Frequently asked questions
How do I approach owners in the Soesterkwartier?
First decide which part you are looking in, the Rivierenbuurt or the Bloemenbuurt, and then send one personal letter to the houses where you would really want to live: who you are, why the Soesterkwartier, and that you are going to live there yourself. Through DoorLetter the first letter is free, printed and delivered by PostNL; the owner can reply anonymously with the code in the letter.
Does much come up for sale in the Soesterkwartier?
Less than the size of the neighbourhood suggests, because part of it is rented and owners stay a long time. The 1930s houses in the Rivierenbuurt come free least of all; when it happens, there is often already a buyer from the street or from an agent's network before the house is on Funda.
Which streets are the most sought after?
The streets of the Rivierenbuurt, such as the Spaarnestraat and the Grebbestraat, with their 1930s houses. That is also where the most people are waiting; a renovated worker's house in the Bloemenbuurt can be a better chance than the house everyone wants.
Some of the homes are rented. Is a letter worthwhile then?
Certainly, as long as you can find the owner-occupied homes. In the Bomen- en Bloemenbuurt and along the Soesterweg there is more rented housing, and a letter there soon ends up with a tenant. Look at the houses that look different from the rest of the block, with their own window frames or a converted attic; those are often owner-occupied homes. Put at the top that the letter is meant for the owner of the house.
Write to the owners in the Soesterkwartier.
Pick a street, write in your own words why you want to live in the Soesterkwartier, and send your letter. The first letter is free, printed and delivered by PostNL; the owner can reply anonymously with the code in the letter.
Write your first letter