Buying a house in the Piushaven (Tilburg): how to reach the owners
The Piushaven 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 Piushaven has 768 addresses in the BAG register.
- An existing home in the municipality of Tilburg sold in 2025 for €425,000 on average, +6.6% on 2024 (CBS StatLine).
Written by Jiri, estate agent in Maastricht and founder of DoorLetter.
Updated on 6 October 2026.
In a few decades the Piushaven has changed from a forgotten harbour basin into a place where many Tilburg people would like to live. There are not many houses with a view of the water, and whoever has one does not give it up easily. What comes free often goes to someone from the neighbourhood who wanted to move up, or is sold through an agent with a client list of their own before it reaches Funda.
The harbour was opened in 1923, as a branch of the Wilhelminakanaal, for the transhipment of goods for the textile industry. Farms had to make way for its construction, and even the veld van Willem II. After the war the harbour lost its function. In 1983 one of the two harbour arms was filled in, and houses from the 1980s now stand there. In the late 1990s there were plans to fill in the rest too; after protest from the neighbourhood that did not go ahead. Since then the quays have been done up, with terraces and new flats between old industrial buildings, and in the streets behind them stand mainly single-family houses. Most in demand is a home with a view of the water.
If I were looking here, I would pick the Hopliedenkade or a stretch of the quay that is itself called Piushaven, and write to the residents of the houses I like. What belongs in it: who I am, what draws me to the harbour, and that I am going to live there myself and not let it out. An owner on the water would rather pass his house on to someone who appreciates the harbour just as much; show in your letter that you are that person.
Piushaven 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
- 768
- BAG via PDOK
Value and prices
- Average sale price, municipality of Tilburg
- €425,000+6.6% 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 Tilburg per year since 1995
Streets people ask about
These are the streets most often named by people searching in the Piushaven. Choose one or two where you would really want to live, not the whole list.
Piushaven · Hopliedenkade · Havendijk · Koopvaardijstraat · Gildebroedersstraat
Postcode area 5017.
Other neighbourhoods in Tilburg
This page in Dutch: Huis kopen in de Piushaven.
Frequently asked questions
How do I approach owners on the Piushaven?
Walk along the quays, pick the houses where you would really want to live, and write the residents one personal letter: who you are, why the Piushaven, 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 on the Piushaven?
Now and then a flat in one of the newer complexes, but a house with a view of the water much less often. Houses like that regularly go within the neighbourhood or through an agent before they are offered publicly. Anyone who wants to live on the water gets more from a letter to the residents of the quay than from a search on Funda.
Which streets are most sought after?
The quays themselves, such as the Piushaven and the Hopliedenkade. In the streets behind them, such as the Koopvaardijstraat, you live close to the water without the terraces outside your door. A house one street back from the quay comes free more often, and the water is still just round the corner.
Which neighbourhoods lie on the Piushaven?
Statistics Netherlands (CBS) uses the name Piushaven for one neighbourhood, in the district Hoogvenne, and that is what the figures on this page cover. Around the harbour also lie Fatima and Armhoef, and in Hoogvenne the neighbourhood Tivoli. Anyone who wants to live on the water can include those quays in the same search.
Write to the owners in the Piushaven.
Pick a street, write in your own words why you want to live in the Piushaven, 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