Buying a house in the Apollobuurt (Amsterdam): how to reach the owners

The Apollobuurt 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.

In short

The Apollobuurt has 4,266 addresses in the BAG register.
An existing home in the municipality of Amsterdam sold in 2025 for €631,000 on average, +2.1% on 2024 (CBS StatLine).

Written by Jiri, estate agent in Maastricht and founder of DoorLetter.

Updated on 6 October 2026.

The Apollobuurt is a neighbourhood where people buy a flat and only leave it again decades later. As a result little comes free, and the spacious homes that do come free are rarely on Funda for long. Often the buyer is already known before a board hangs in the window: someone from the same block who wants more space, or a family that sent the owner a letter earlier.

Berlage drew the neighbourhood in his Plan Zuid, and it was built in the 1920s and 1930s, almost entirely surrounded by water: the Noorder and the Zuider Amstelkanaal and the Boerenwetering. Along the Apollolaan and the Minervalaan came town villas for well-to-do Amsterdammers; the rest consists mainly of stately blocks of flats in the style of the Amsterdamse School, around large communal gardens. The Apollolaan and the Stadionweg run right through the neighbourhood, and the Beethovenstraat is the shopping street. The avenues carry names from classical mythology, the side streets often those of painters and composers. A town villa almost never comes free; a spacious flat with a balcony onto the communal garden somewhat more often.

If I were searching here, I would choose a stretch of the Minervalaan or the Michelangelostraat and write to the residents of the flats I like. Who I am, why the Apollobuurt, and that I am going to live there myself. In a block with a handful of owners a letter like that gets discussed on the stairs, and that works in your favour.

Apollobuurt in figures

Public figures about the neighbourhood, refreshed daily. They say something about who lives here and what it costs; whether anything will come up for sale, they do not say. That is what the letter is for.

Homes

Addresses: 4,266; BAG via PDOK

Value and prices

Average sale price, municipality of Amsterdam: €631,000+2.1% on 2024; CBS StatLine, existing homes 2025

Sources: the Dutch address and building register (BAG) via PDOK, CBS neighbourhood statistics (Wijken en Buurten), CBS StatLine (existing owner-occupied homes, average sale price per municipality). No source publishes overbidding figures per neighbourhood, so they are not here.

The average sale price in Amsterdam per year since 1995

Streets people ask about

These are the streets most often named by people searching in the Apollobuurt. Choose one or two where you would really want to live, not the whole list.

Apollolaan · Minervalaan · Beethovenstraat · Stadionweg · Michelangelostraat · Diepenbrockstraat

Postcode area 1077.

Other neighbourhoods in Amsterdam

This page in Dutch: Huis kopen in de Apollobuurt.

Frequently asked questions

How do I approach owners in the Apollobuurt?

Choose a few entrances or a stretch of avenue you really know, and write the residents of the homes you would want one personal letter: who you are, why the Apollobuurt, 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 Apollobuurt?

Flats come up now and then, but few for a neighbourhood where so many people want to live. The spacious corner homes, the ground-floor flats with a garden and the town villas come free least and often go outside Funda, within the block or through an agent with a list. Anyone hoping for a home like that does well to write now.

Which streets are the most sought after?

The Apollolaan and the Minervalaan, and the quiet streets between them. Those avenues are also what most searchers aim for. A side street with a block you find beautiful often yields a calmer conversation with an owner who has not yet been written to by other searchers.

What about ground lease (erfpacht) in the Apollobuurt?

As in a large part of Amsterdam, the land here is usually held on ground lease (erfpacht) from the municipality. How that is arranged differs per home: whether the ground rent has been bought off and until when, and whether the owner has already switched to perpetual ground lease. That does not belong in your letter, but do ask about it in the first conversation; it helps determine what the home really costs you.

Write to the owners in the Apollobuurt.

Pick a street, write in your own words why you want to live in the Apollobuurt, 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