13 June 2013
The Dutch new town that has pioneered the provision of serviced sites for self builders has decided to boost the initiative still further with the release of more than 1,000 additional self build plots.
Up to now most of the 3,000 self build homes that have already been built in Almere are located in the Homeruskwartier section of the new town. But in recent weeks a string of new areas have been earmarked for self builders right across the locality.
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To the west of Homeruskwartier two new zones have just been opened up at Columbuskwartier and Europakwartier, and around 400 plots are up for grabs here. In the first few days since the plots were released for sale, the majority have already been sold or reserved.
A couple of miles north of Homeruskwartier, 350 new self build plots are now available at Noorderplassen. These range from modest 200 sq m sites to ones of around 2,000 sq m, and many have attractive water or canal frontages.
At Overgooi, to the west of the centre of Almere and overlooking the inland sea, scores more sites are being marketed. These plots have been set aside for very large homes and plot sizes are typically 2,000 to 5,000 sq m.
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Other areas have been identified at Vogelhorst, Nobelhorst, Waterhoven, De Builenkas, Stripheldbuurt and De Evenaar, and collectively these will bring many hundreds of other plots onto the market.
The municipal authorities at Almere have found that while demand for speculative housing remains very flat, there is lots of demand from self builders seeking plots. When a batch of plots go for sale people queue for several days to reserve the prime sites.
Almost all the plots are sold at the same price – typically about 350-400 Euro per square metre, so it’s possible to purchase a small site for a modest house for about £30,000. The plots come fully serviced, with roads, utility connections and a link to the city’s district heating system.
And the success of the initiative at Almere has led to other councils in the Netherlands undertaking similar programmes. For example there are now several self build zones established in The Hague and Nijmegen, and projects are being developed on the outskirts of Amsterdam too.
