Buying a house in Tuindorp (Utrecht): how to reach the owners

Tuindorp 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

Tuindorp has 2,740 addresses in the BAG register.
An existing home in the municipality of Utrecht sold in 2025 for €549,000 on average, +5.6% on 2024 (CBS StatLine).

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

Updated on 6 October 2026.

Tuindorp is the Utrecht neighbourhood where families end up who want a 1930s house with a garden and do not want to leave the city. Those who buy here often stay until long after the children have left home. If a house does come free, the street usually knows first, and it goes to a neighbour who wants to move up to a corner house or to a family that had already come forward to the owner. Some of those sales never reach Funda.

The villa village was built between 1930 and 1937 in the Twaalfhoevenpolder, on land that then still belonged to Maartensdijk; only since 1954 has it been part of Utrecht. The Godijn brothers built there for the better segment, and the first houses came on the Mr. Sickeszlaan. The neighbourhood is a triangle between the railway to Amersfoort, the Eykmanlaan and the Kardinaal de Jongweg, and almost all the streets are named after professors and other scientists. They are family houses in the same 1930s style, with bay windows, overhanging roofs and a front garden with a hedge. A spacious corner house or a house with a deep garden comes free least.

If I were searching here, I would choose the Prof. Ritzema Boslaan or a stretch of the Linnaeuslaan and write to the residents of the houses that suit my family. Honestly: who we are, why Tuindorp, and that we are going to live there ourselves. Anyone selling here often likes to pass the house on to a family like they themselves once were, and you can simply write that down.

Tuindorp 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: 2,740; BAG via PDOK

Value and prices

Average sale price, municipality of Utrecht: €549,000+5.6% 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 Utrecht per year since 1995

Streets people ask about

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

Mr. Sickeszlaan · Prof. Ritzema Boslaan · Linnaeuslaan · Prof. J.W. Dieperinklaan · Eykmanlaan · Kardinaal de Jongweg

Postcode area 3571.

Other neighbourhoods in Utrecht

This page in Dutch: Huis kopen in Tuindorp.

Frequently asked questions

How do I approach owners in Tuindorp?

With one personal letter to the residents of the houses where you would really want to live, not to the whole triangle. Write who you are, why Tuindorp, 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 Tuindorp?

Little, and what comes goes quickly. Families stay here a long time, and some of the houses change hands without a board ever having stood in the front garden. A letter is the way to come into the picture with those owners before an agent is involved.

Which streets are the most sought after?

The avenues with the larger houses, such as the Prof. Ritzema Boslaan, and the quiet streets in the middle of the triangle, away from the Kardinaal de Jongweg and the railway. That is where almost everyone searches, and a street on the edge that you find pleasant often yields an answer sooner.

Is Tuindorp-Oost part of Tuindorp?

Not for the CBS: Tuindorp-Oost is a neighbourhood of its own, east of the old Tuindorp and built in the 1960s. Pre-war Tuindorp is the triangle up to the Eykmanlaan. Anyone looking for the 1930s house looks there; anyone who mainly wants to live in this corner of the city can safely take Tuindorp-Oost into the same search.

Write to the owners in Tuindorp.

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