Buying a house in Helpman (Groningen): how to reach the owners

Helpman 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

Helpman has 4,500 addresses in the BAG register.
An existing home in the municipality of Groningen sold in 2025 for €397,000 on average, +6.2% on 2024 (CBS StatLine).

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

Updated on 5 October 2026.

Helpman is the old village on the south side of Groningen, and the neighbourhood families move to when they find the Schildersbuurt too crowded. They stay. Little comes up for sale, and what does has often gone round at the school or the sports club before an agent is involved. By the time a house is on Funda, the neighbours have usually already had a look on behalf of someone who wants to move in.

Until the start of the last century Helpman belonged to Haren. On the Verlengde Hereweg stand the town houses and middle-class homes from that time, in the side streets simpler workers' houses. Most of it was built afterwards to the expansion plans of Mulock Houwer and Berlage, in the 1920s and 1930s and after the war: terraced houses with a garden, along the Helperzoom and the singels more spacious houses. A whole house with a garden in a quiet street is what everyone is looking for and what comes free least often.

If I were looking here, I would pick the Coendersweg and a stretch of the Haydnlaan and write to the residents of the houses that suit my family. Short and honest: who we are, why Helpman, and that we are going to live in the house ourselves and not let it out by the room. Residents here often came in the same way themselves once.

Helpman 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: 4,500; BAG via PDOK

Value and prices

Average sale price, municipality of Groningen: €397,000+6.2% 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 Groningen per year since 1995

Streets people ask about

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

Verlengde Hereweg · Helperzoom · Helper Brink · Haydnlaan · Coendersweg · Helper Kerkstraat

Postcode area 9721 and 9722.

Other neighbourhoods in Groningen

This page in Dutch: Huis kopen in Helpman.

Frequently asked questions

How do I approach owners in Helpman?

With a short, personal letter to the residents of the houses where you would really want to live: who you are, why Helpman, and that you are going to live there yourself. Through DoorLetter the first letter is free, printed and delivered by PostNL, and the owner can reply anonymously with the code in the letter, even months later.

Does much come up for sale in Helpman?

Flats and upstairs flats come up regularly, whole houses with a garden less so. Those often only change hands when a life changes, and part of those sales go outside Funda, through neighbours or an agent who already knew a buyer. Anyone who wants a whole house does well to write to owners themselves.

Which streets are most sought after?

The Helperzoom and the singels, the Verlengde Hereweg for anyone looking for a town house, and the quiet streets around the Helper Brink. But above all pick the street that suits your family; a street not everyone mentions often gives you a better chance than the avenue that is in every top ten.

Is De Wijert part of Helpman?

Not for Statistics Netherlands (CBS): De Wijert is a district of its own, south of Helpman, built in the 1950s and 1960s with more flats and more spacious streets. Anyone looking for pre-war Helpman, with the houses from around 1900 to the 1930s, looks around the Verlengde Hereweg and the Helperzoom.

Write to the owners in Helpman.

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