This neighborhood in Old South is the most expensive in the Netherlands, what is it like to live there? 'It's a bit nouveau riche now anyway'
In the Diepenbrock neighborhood, a home costs an average of 2.67 million and the walk-in closets are the size of a small apartment. Recently, it also became the most expensive neighborhood in all of the Netherlands. Who lives there? And is there a downside to luxury? "When you have such an expensive house, who can you trust?
Malika Sevil 3 August 2024, 03:00
If you live in the most expensive neighborhood in the Netherlands, don't be surprised if a letter from an eager real estate agent regularly arrives on the mat. This is also the case with Xaviera Hollander (81) - author of The Happy Hooker and Kind af. Should she want to sell her house, real estate agents line up in rows of three to close the deal.
They "ask the very friendliest," but Hollander doesn't fret. "I really like it here, so does my my husband. I have a stair elevator, I'm staying." Hollander sits in her spacious living room at a generous table overlooking a garden full of flowers. There is much to see inside as well: a sexy little statue of a beautiful women's bust , a statue of a sexy ballerina, some musical instruments, a painting from some time ago showing a nearly naked Xaviera and of course several of Xaviera's own books in four languages.
She resides in a 1929 semi-detached house with five hundred square meters of land around it. Property value: 2.97 million euros. She became world famous and she lives in the most expensive neighborhood in the Netherlands, but that does not mean she is treasure-rich. Maybe on paper, but not on her bank account. "Without my B&B I wouldn't make it, because the maintenance and ground lease cost a capital," she says.
Then just sell it and gobble up the house? No way. "Just look outside. Trees! The birds are chirping. It feels like living outside, but in the city. And the beautiful Beatrix Park is around the corner, my husband Philip , who is ten years younger, walks our little dog Luna there every day."
Refurbishment of 1.3 million
This is the Diepenbrock neighborhood in Old South, the most expensive part of the Netherlands. Here, a house costs an average of 2,670,000 euros, real estate expert Calcasa calculated in May. This year, the Diepenbrock neighborhood wins for the first time from the most expensive neighborhoods in Huizen, Wassenaar and Bloemendaal.
This is the golden edge of the Gold Coast. Who lives there? Why is precisely this piece of Amsterdam so exclusive? Is it really so blissful to live here? And is there anything left for sale?
To start with that last question: yes. For 11.8 million euros you have on the Bernard Zweerskade a villa with an area of 516 square meters ('with possibility to enlarge', according to the broker on Funda). One house offers a castle-style wine cellar, another villa has a walk-in closet of 35 square meters - the size of a small apartment. The cheapest one currently for sale in the neighborhood is a 1.3 million refurbishment with energy label F.
Entrepreneurial drive
Zooming in on the CBS figures, we see this: the Diepenbrock neighborhood has 329 homes, two-thirds are for sale. About 800 people live there - many college and university educated and self-employed in business and financial services. Almost 30 percent of the residents of the Diepenbrock neighborhood have a Western migration background, which is relatively high and may indicate the number of expats. A business establishment is registered at 80 percent of the addresses; in all of Amsterdam, the figure is about 40 percent. This says something about the neighborhood's entrepreneurial drive.
OLD SOUTH
"It's just a neighborhood with very decent people, as it's called, I don't know a crook from this neighborhood," says Hollander. She settled here about forty years ago after being bored in Amstelveen for several years in a row. "Maurice de Hond lived here and told me it was for sale. I haggled a bit, but was able to buy it for a very good price."
The neighborhood had to get used to her at first, she says. "Of course, I'm a bit of a party animal." Noise also came from her bedroom, she continues. "'You do make a lot of noise,' "I would hear. That could be true. When I have sex, I sometimes cum at two in the morning. '"Would you please close the windows and curtains?'" a neighbor would then ask.
"Well," Hollander means it: "it's classy but sometimes a bit negative ."
Frank de Grave, former VVD alderman in Amsterdam, State Secretary of Social Affairs and Minister of Defense, also lived in this neighborhood. He was 28 when he and his wife "instantly fell in love" with a semi-detached house on Herman Heijermansweg. They bought it in 1983 for 450,000 guilders - for them a fortune from the gods. It was a neighborhood with notaries, professors, that kind of work. Everyone stayed there, because why move when you live in the idyll of the Herman Heijermansweg?
They had children, they grew up, left home and suddenly in 2008 there was a bill in the mailbox from an entrepreneur. He wanted to buy the house, for a, yes, De Grave cannot put it any other way, "rude offer. Rude high, that is.
"The neighborhood was already changing. We saw a car stop in front of the opposite neighbor's house at one o'clock in the morning. That, of course, caught our eye. What transpired? Someone had come over from Paris to take a look at the house in the middle of the night and then made an offer. We gradually got a different kind of people in the neighborhood. It did become a bit of the nouveau riche and we're not quite of that kind. Anyway, that's a matter of taste."
De Grave and his wife accepted the "rude offer" and now live, very satisfactorily, in a century-old canal house in the city center.
Cruijff's father-in-law
The professors, notaries, politicians and doctors still live there, but ceos, tech millionaires, presenters and other BN'ers moved in. Many people in the Diepenbrock neighborhood start talking about Johan Cruijff's father-in-law, who had a house there. Ruud Gullit was Xaviera Hollander's back neighbor.
On Herman Gorter Street is the former home of the former president of the European Central Bank, the late Wim Duisenberg. His wife Gretta hung the Palestinian flag on her balcony after a pro-Palestine demonstration in 2002, much to the annoyance and anger of her neighbors. It became such a riot that, although Wim Duisenberg passed away in 2005 and his widow has long since moved out, they have not forgotten it in the Diepenbrock neighborhood.
The neighborhood was really built for the well-to-do in the 1920s and 1930s, says architectural historian Coert Peter Krabbe of the Department of Monuments and Archaeology. "The Diepenbrock neighborhood is part of Berlage's Plan Zuid. That is a brilliant urban plan within which all sections of the society of the time were built. On the east side near Victorieplein and Vrijheidslaan for the lower class, in the Rivierenbuurt for the middle class. And then in the Diepenbrock neighborhood and on Apollolaan you see villas that you really don't find almost anywhere in the city."
Almost everything is built in the typical and beloved brick architecture. Because the neighborhood is sandwiched between water and the greenery of Beatrix Park, it is also quiet. "That's attractive," says Krabbe. "You live by the park, in beautiful architecture. And a huge plus is also that you're close to all the city's cultural amenities. The fact that this is the most expensive neighborhood doesn't surprise me."
Double agenda
Yet in the most expensive neighborhood in the country, 6.2 percent of residents still have low incomes, CBS figures show. So a zip code (1077) doesn't say everything. Mary van Vucht of StadsdorpZuid, a residents' initiative in Oud-Zuid that aims to increase neighborliness in the neighborhood, sometimes senses the same among residents. "If your money is in stones, you are not immediately rich," she says. Moreover, it also involves high costs, she emphasizes, such as maintenance, ground lease and property taxes.
If you do have money and a big house, that privilege also comes with a downside, Van Vucht knows. "Loneliness. That is just as prevalent in the Diepenbrock neighborhood. And perhaps more so because people are also suspicious. Because when you have such an expensive house, who can you trust?" For example, how do you know if the plumber's, carpenter's or gardener's quote is correct? Making new friends is then also more difficult, because aren't there other intentions or double agendas?
According to Van Vucht, Stadsdorp Zuid was set up in 2009 to help older neighborhood residents find reliable "addresses. "If you know a good and reliable cleaner, handyman, painter or gardener, you help each other out," he said. "Gradually the activities expanded and now residents can sign up for a variety of activities, such as table tennis, bocce ball or hiking. "And when you get to know each other, you trust each other more."
Van Vucht also does notice that many residents are increasingly concerned with themselves and less with the neighborhood. "My generation still went to introduce themselves to the neighbors when they moved somewhere, but that's not in anymore. And on Beethoven Street, there are more and more juice bars where people sit and work with laptops. That's where the original resident, who has lived here for 30 years, doesn't always feel at home."
Hip sports school
A little further down Herman Gorterstraat is church Vrijburg, a place where the daughter of the late South African cleric and human rights activist Desmond Tutu, van Furth, holds meetings of her own faith community. Inside, Gigi Calkoen, office worker and Old South resident, is busy. She has thought about whether this is a nice place for a church. "As a church you would like to do something for the local residents, but for food parcels we are in the wrong neighborhood. People don't need that much here," she says.
Well, parries one of the two pastors, Rachelle van Andel, who has just walked in, a church is also a meeting place and precisely in this kind of neighborhood there are few social venues to meet. "I think there is also a lot of loneliness behind those high fences. When I walk down the street, I get the feeling that many people are busy with their own little micro-world. Working out at the trendy gym in that old church, Saints & Stars, barbecuing in the garden, while I believe in that we humans are in dire need of meeting and seeing each other."
But then again, when you have a mega-mattress, a Big Green Egg barbecue, a five-foot garden set and a swimming pool at your disposal, what would you look to for connection?
"Until you face illness, loss of a loved one, old age. Until you lose a job, experience bankruptcy, get divorced. Until you find that you are vulnerable," says Van Andel. "Then, in my experience, it creates space for life questions. Look, it's also a facade, isn't it, such a big house, a nice car, we have it good for each other. But in adversity it makes no difference. Then you also look for places where you don't always coincide with your social function and where you can connect with others."
Xaviera Hollander also likes to put things into perspective. Even in Holland's most expensive neighborhood, people struggle with common-law problems. "Once I was stuck halfway down the stairs on my stair elevator with all my stuff on my lap. The power went out again, probably because the Diepenbrockstraat was once again open for maintenance work. That maintenance took forever. That too is the Diepenbrock neighborhood."
Xaviera's 81ste Birthda Party 2024
This year, Xaviera and her husband treated a few dozen intimate friends and acquaintances to a delicious birthday meal. Philip prepared a majestic afternoon of blissful food and various drinks. To top it all off, there was an erotic burlesque show by a well known artist brought by Shai Shahar as a birthday present. Even Xaviera's dog Luna followed this beautiful lady closely!
XAVIERA HOLLANDERS FAREWELL OF A DEAR FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE WRITER HANS PLOMP.
Meanwhile, there was also a wonderful large article in the same Parool edition as my above piece about the neighborhood where I run my own bed and breakfast, about the soon-to-be eutenasia of my lifelong friend and fellow writer HANS PLOMP, from Ruigoord. He is currently felled by prostate cancer, after several terribly strong medications to try to cure him, however, he is now completely paralyzed from his waste down to his feet. His loving wife, Masja, has been accompanying him these last days until his euthanasia, which can take place any time. I Xaviera Hollander actually grew up together with Hans and I even introduced him to his first wife, Hanny, with whom he has had a daughter for a long time , but who rarely appears in the picture. Hanny even died of cancer a long time ago.
Hans Plomp and I started our collective S.P, O. Scholieren Pers Organisatie when we were still at high school, Now he is unfortunately terribly demolished by this terrible disease, has even lost all his teeth and is almost completely confined to his bed... surrounded by a background of his colorful park and images behind him. These are his last words to date
I EXPERIENCE THE SAME KIND OF CURIOSITY ABOUT DEATH AS WHEN WE SQUATTED RUIGOORD, AND NOW IT'S LIKE TRAVELING TO A FOREIGN LAND, I'M REALLY DONE ON THIS EARTH . OTHER THINGS ATTRACT ME MORE NOW THAN THE SHITTY MESS HERE ON EARTH ..I AM THEREFORE GOING TO MEET MY END JOYFULLY. HANS PLOMP
And and here is a poem I also just found: written by SIMON VINKENOOG -, colleague poet and writer friend of Hans and me, Xaviera
A MANIFEST FOR LOVE
I will teach you how
I tell you:
I am a Dutch poet.
I perform the Dutch language.
I speak in simple terms.
I have a simple purpose:
love one another.
I speak not of thy neighbor, nor of thy even -neighbor,
I speak not of thy enemy nor of thy friends,
i do not speak to the deaf, walls or television sets
I speak to people, and I say to you:
love one another
I will tell you, why Dear friends.
because it is good , because it is a good feeling,.
because it happened to me, I love, I love the other,
I love myself, I love my God, and I love you.
Sometimes my love is imperfect, I express my regret,
I am a doer and speak poetic freedom ,
speak the truth.
Love one another.
I will teach thee how.
I make you use your senses.
I command you to look, hear, feel and smell:
great things are happening.
You will be amazed. You will hear it for miles.
You will feel it primal, and you will smell it anywhere:
love love love love.
I am a dochet and speak dichetrike freegeid
Speak the wariness
love one another
I will teach you how
I teach you to look, hear, feel and reach:
big things are happening
You will hear me too far
You'll feel it everywhere, and it's everywhere too.
Dear friends, I hope you enjoyed these summer texts for august 2024 about my own life and helas quickly approaching death of our friend HANS PLOMP,
with love of XAVIERA AND PHILIP
