Makelaars
Oh, here we go with the Dutch estate agents again. I'm trying to keep some sort of balanced view of the process, but it's difficult.
Minuses:
- No viewings in the evening or at the weekends. Although you generally have to be earning four times the rental price before they'll let you hire a place, so pretty obviously you have to have a job; perhaps, you know, the sort of job where you're meant to be at work during the day, not viewing flats?
- NO OVENS. Seriously. Luxury penthouse 100+ m2 flats with granite this and high-finish that, with nothing more than a crappy flat electric hob and a microwave for cooking with. (I have actually seen more than one flat that only had a hob, but I suppose you can get free-standing microwaves.)
- One agency (the one with several new and interesting-looking blocks, of course) wants us to fill in a ten page form detailing our complete financial situation, including declarations from both our employers and a signed statement from the owner of our current flat (who lives in Vienna) before they will even arrange an appointment for a viewing at any of them. Not after we have looked at somewhere and would like to move forward, but before they'll even let us look at anything.
- Washing machines in bathrooms. Not everywhere, but it's a risk. Washing machines do not belong in bathrooms.
- Rental places that are 'kaal', that is, bald, that is, they don't even have floor or window coverings. Houses to buy, fine, but while I'm renting, do I really want to own my own laminate?
However, trying to keep an eye on the pluses:
- Balconies, big French windows, loggias; almost all flats have devices for getting substantial amounts of fresh air and sunlight (where available) into them
- Rotterdam likes towers, and I think I'd quite like to live on a double-digit floor number
- Roof terraces also popular, with both Rotterdammers and me
- A proper separate shower and bath-with-shower-head are to be found almost everywhere
- Individual basement storage sheds are common
- As are proper secure building-communal bike stores
Think about the daylight, Sherm, and not the ovens. (And not the fact that 'makelaar', which means 'agent', sounds conspicuously like 'makkelijk', which means 'easy', thereby making their sheer obstructiveness all the more irritating.)
Minuses:
- No viewings in the evening or at the weekends. Although you generally have to be earning four times the rental price before they'll let you hire a place, so pretty obviously you have to have a job; perhaps, you know, the sort of job where you're meant to be at work during the day, not viewing flats?
- NO OVENS. Seriously. Luxury penthouse 100+ m2 flats with granite this and high-finish that, with nothing more than a crappy flat electric hob and a microwave for cooking with. (I have actually seen more than one flat that only had a hob, but I suppose you can get free-standing microwaves.)
- One agency (the one with several new and interesting-looking blocks, of course) wants us to fill in a ten page form detailing our complete financial situation, including declarations from both our employers and a signed statement from the owner of our current flat (who lives in Vienna) before they will even arrange an appointment for a viewing at any of them. Not after we have looked at somewhere and would like to move forward, but before they'll even let us look at anything.
- Washing machines in bathrooms. Not everywhere, but it's a risk. Washing machines do not belong in bathrooms.
- Rental places that are 'kaal', that is, bald, that is, they don't even have floor or window coverings. Houses to buy, fine, but while I'm renting, do I really want to own my own laminate?
However, trying to keep an eye on the pluses:
- Balconies, big French windows, loggias; almost all flats have devices for getting substantial amounts of fresh air and sunlight (where available) into them
- Rotterdam likes towers, and I think I'd quite like to live on a double-digit floor number
- Roof terraces also popular, with both Rotterdammers and me
- A proper separate shower and bath-with-shower-head are to be found almost everywhere
- Individual basement storage sheds are common
- As are proper secure building-communal bike stores
Think about the daylight, Sherm, and not the ovens. (And not the fact that 'makelaar', which means 'agent', sounds conspicuously like 'makkelijk', which means 'easy', thereby making their sheer obstructiveness all the more irritating.)