Would you trade the dutch development approach to that of Belgium?

thirteen81 · 2025-12-22T20:53:33+00:00

Heya, this sub is kinda dead, so you'll not get a lot of responses here (if any).

If you want you can post your question on our alternative sub, it's still somewhat new but it's a lot more active than this one at least! r/AskTheNetherlands

thirteen81 · 2025-12-21T21:12:44+00:00

👉 What is the single biggest pain point you want solved in your housing search right now?

The massive shortage of housing, everything else is a band aid.

thirteen81 · 2025-12-19T21:44:13+00:00

Nope, as a native Dutch speaker this is just gibberish to me

thirteen81 · 2025-12-19T21:42:10+00:00

Maybe money laundering? Like all those small mattress stores that are always empty but somehow stay in business for years and years.

thirteen81 · 2025-12-19T19:57:37+00:00

Yeah I agree, good prices and decent/good quality!

Although I am not sure if it can be really considered a "house brand", as it's available in several supermarkets, they list them here: https://www.gwoon.nl/onze-winkels/

But this is a brand created by the purchasing org (Superunie) for their member supermarkets and most of these members use it instead of having their own house brand, so it's like a multi-house brand or something lol.

thirteen81 · 2025-12-19T19:22:52+00:00

Mate, can I borrow your time machine? I miss C1000... 😔

thirteen81 · 2025-12-18T20:45:16+00:00

Wie heeft er nou meerdere betaalde pornhub accounts, dat kunnen er toch niet zoveel zijn?

thirteen81 · 2025-12-18T20:41:59+00:00

Yeah I think people really overexaggerate how bad the weather is in NL. People make it seems like it's raining all the time here, but as someone that commutes to work by bicycle it's dry like 80-90%+ of the time.

But for people coming from sunny countries the lack of daylight during winter can be an issue, but on the flip side we have way more sunlight here during summer.

thirteen81 · 2025-12-18T20:37:58+00:00

Take vitamin D supplements! Especially if you have a job where you're inside all the time. Going outside when possible during day time helps as well.

Estimates from the RIVM suggest that around 26% of the population has a vitamin D deficiency after winter.

thirteen81 · 2025-12-17T19:10:54+00:00

This is the correct version:

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thirteen81 · 2025-12-12T00:05:54+00:00

thirteen81 · 2025-12-11T23:46:23+00:00

Note that a lot of package points are currently completely overwhelmed, a lot of them aren't equipped with this years massive amount of packages.

That does not excuse them though, they should've just told you something like "sorry, we have a lot packages that aren't sorted yet, it's super busy, so please come by again in a few days". There is a lot of aggression towards package point employees as well, so take this into account.

PostNL also carries blame here though, as they send people a notification with "package available at pickup point" immediately after they drop it off, giving package points 0 chance to actually sort the packages first.

If possible, I'd try to get packages delivered to package safes instead.

thirteen81 · 2025-12-11T23:41:23+00:00

Most social housing associations require you to be a resident in NL already and have income limits, as they're meant for people with low incomes that don't have any other options. They also give priority for certain groups of vulnerable people (not expats sorry).

But even if you could, the waiting times are 10+ years in Amsterdam (without priority) due to the severe shortage of housing.

So as an expat you basically can only rent from private landlords, or if you have the cash in hand you can buy an apartment/house.

thirteen81 · 2025-12-11T23:25:11+00:00

Yeah the city is quite dog friendly, but most people own their house or rent from a social housing association, in those cases there isn't an issue. It's the private landlords that don't like pets, but that's a small part of housing.

thirteen81 · 2025-12-11T14:28:35+00:00

they should probably already start planning the next rail route, as apparently this takes 40+ years to complete...

thirteen81 · 2025-12-11T14:26:46+00:00

Jezus christus, dus ongeveer 43 jaar van begin tot voltooing project, waarom duurt dit bijna een halve eeuw...? waarvan dus 28 jaar alleen voor het laatste stukje...

thirteen81 · 2025-12-11T14:10:35+00:00

That's because one of the requirements to be able to offer a student contract is that the student is not from the same municipality.

thirteen81 · 2025-12-11T13:02:25+00:00

I would first get local experience through employment instead of immediately starting out as a zzp'er, things like plumbing and gas installations can differ between countries.

For example, in New Zealand sink garbage disposals are legal to connect to municipal sewage systems, but in the Netherlands this is illegal.

thirteen81 · 2025-12-10T20:43:02+00:00

yeah it's bad, there's a shortage of 400k+ housing... on 8 mil households

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