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

The Schildersbuurt 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 Schildersbuurt has 2,964 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.

The Schildersbuurt is the neighbourhood that people in Groningen want to move to as soon as they find the city centre too busy and still want to live right next to it. A whole town house comes free here when a life changes, and then the buyer is often already known: a colleague from the university, a neighbour who wants to move up, someone who once sent a letter. On Funda you mainly see the flats.

The neighbourhood was built between 1880 and 1930, directly to the west of the old city ramparts: stately buildings on the Westersingel and the Kraneweg, behind them wide streets and squares with town houses for professors and civil servants, and on the edges plainer workers' houses. Many town houses have been split, and because of the university part of it is student rental. An unsplit town house on the H.W. Mesdagplein rarely comes free; an upstairs flat more often.

If I were looking here, I would pick two or three streets around the H.W. Mesdagplein and write to the residents of the buildings I like. Honest and short: who I am, why the Schildersbuurt, and that I am going to live in the house myself, not split it into rooms. In Groningen that last point is no afterthought.

Schildersbuurt 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: 2,964; 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 the Schildersbuurt. Choose one or two where you would really want to live, not the whole list.

Kraneweg · H.W. Mesdagstraat · Herman Colleniusstraat · Westersingel · Taco Mesdagstraat · Jozef Israëlsstraat

Postcode area 9718.

Other neighbourhoods in Groningen

This page in Dutch: Huis kopen in de Schildersbuurt.

Frequently asked questions

How do I approach owners in the Schildersbuurt?

Pick a few streets where you would really want to live and write the residents one personal letter: who you are, why the Schildersbuurt, and that you are going to live in the house yourself and not rent it out. 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 Schildersbuurt?

Flats and upstairs flats, yes; whole town houses, hardly. Those rarely change hands, and when it happens it often goes outside Funda, through colleagues, neighbours or an estate agent who already knew a buyer. Those who want such a house are better off writing themselves than waiting.

Which streets are the most sought after?

The Kraneweg and the Westersingel, the H.W. Mesdagplein and the wide streets around it. But sought after also means a lot of competition; a quiet street that you find beautiful and that is not in every top ten often gives you a better chance.

Many buildings here have been split into rooms. Is a letter worth it then?

Part of the Schildersbuurt is student rental, and then the tenant reads your letter. Look at the buildings with one name plate and a well-kept front door, and put in the letter that it is meant for whoever owns the house. Owners here have been getting cards from landlords for years; a letter from someone who wants to live there themselves reads differently.

Write to the owners in the Schildersbuurt.

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