We found an apartment!
In a country with a housing shortage, we got very, very lucky.
We had really good luck in selling houses over the years — all three times I think we sold within a week or two of listing. Our last house we sold the same day we listed.
Finding a new place to live has usually taken much longer, sometimes several months. So it was a bit of a shock to get accepted for the first apartment we applied for in Den Haag. The listing on Pararius is gone now but I’ll post some photos after our November visit.
Housing in Den Haag is hard to find, especially landlords who will accept pets. I’d estimate there’s maybe pet-friendly 125 units larger than 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) available right now. There’s maybe another 35-50 units if you want to go down to 75 square meters, which is basically three rooms.
We offered two months deposit in addition to assuming the lease on November 1. So yeah, we going to pay rent for 2.5 months before we arrive. It’s costly but the peace of mind is worth it.
The apartment is in a building dating to 1906, but it’s totally modern on the inside — polished concrete floors, and an beautiful glass atrium that connects the kitchen to the building with the bedrooms. It’s wired for fiber Internet. The entrance should have room to store our bikes inside. (The layout is a bit quirky — it’s C shaped with an interior courtyard between the living room/kitchen and the bedrooms.) And it has good light, which will be important during Dutch winters :)
The location is really great. The downtown pedestrian mall, with shopping and restaurants, is a 10 minute walk. Den Haag Central train station is 10 minutes by bike. And if you want go to the beach, it’s about 20 minutes by tram.
Most importantly, we’re going to have a guest bedroom for the first time in 15 years, so we have a place for you to stay when you come to visit!
Congrats!! That great find definitely gets rid of a lot of stress.