Homes in Amsterdam: new flats and historic townhouses are in demand as tourists, culture buffs and international companies flock to the rebel city

There are more bicycles than residents in Amsterdam city centre and the deference offered to riders is remarkable.

Cyclists pedal nonchalantly the wrong way down one-way streets, ferrying children in low-level boxes on the front of their bikes — yet tram drivers stop for them and taxi drivers reluctantly give way to them. Cyclists rule in this wonderful, water-filled place.

Amsterdam is a rare city where residents live in the centre and commute to the outskirts, giving a real lived-in buzz to the 17th-century townhouses, cafés and bars on the Unesco-listed canal ring.

The city’s popularity is growing. Tourist numbers are up more than five per cent year on year, helped by new five-star hotels, while average property prices have doubled since 2008, says Barbara van der Grijp of Engel & Völkers.

“People like Amsterdam because it is essentially seven villages clustered in one human-sized city,” she says. “Each village has its own charm yet you can cycle everywhere in a short time and that gives a freedom and ease to living here that people really appreciate.”

Neighbourhoods especially in demand include Jordaan — a newly gentrified but still characterful and buzzy area beside the main canals — and De Pijp to the south.

Traditionally, the most expensive properties were along the three main concentric canals — Herengracht, Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht — but this year they have been overtaken by the southern Museum District around the upmarket shopping street of PC Hooftstraat.

Global businesses with headquarters in Amsterdam include Netflix, Nike and booking.com and their staff like being close to the international schools in the south of the city.

RESALE HOMES IN PRIME LOCATIONS

Expect to pay from £430,000 for an 810sq ft two-bedroom unmodernised apartment on the prime canals, and from £900,000 for an entire canal-front townhouse.

In Jordaan, on the prized Prinsengracht canal and 10 minutes’ walk from Amsterdam Central Station, a newly modernised five-floor four-bedroom townhouse with a small outside space is on the market for £1.4 million through Engel & Völkers. Agents Broersma have an elegant two-bedroom apartment on a prime stretch of the Keizersgracht canal for £816,000.

West of the centre it’s a 10-minute walk to highly desirable Oud West, where a newly renovated 1,000sq ft two-bedroom apartment with excellent rental potential looks good value for £500,000, again on the market through Engel & Völkers. The ground-floor apartment faces a canal and has its own front door, pale oak floors, boxy white radiators and extra-tall dark doors and windows.

NEW HOMES AT THE DUTCH HOLLAND PARK

Residents priced out of the historic city centre are snapping up new homes at Holland Park in the south east. This is a greenfield site being converted into a new district with canals, retail units and about 6,000 apartments.

Prices start from £217,000 for a two-bedroom apartment and the project is attracting impressive numbers of buyers, according to Engel & Völkers’ Van der Grijp.

“The aim is to create a new live-work area of the city and we’ve seen buyers reserving 80 homes in a single weekend because it is difficult to find anything at this price in Amsterdam,” she says.

“Holland Park is convenient, 14 minutes from Central Station and 12 minutes to Vondelpark [the central city public park] and all homes are freehold, an important issue in Amsterdam where 80 per cent of property is leasehold.”

Engel & Völkers: engelvoelkers.com/amsterdam

Broersma: broersma.nl

Holland Park: hollandpark.nl