Achterwerf, Almere

Living in Achterwerf

Achterwerf is urban but not overwhelming, and the stock is a genuine mix of apartments and family houses (51% houses).

At 6,015 residents per km² the buurt is busy without being packed.

Almere is the Netherlands' youngest city — planned, spacious and car-friendly, with newer housing stock than almost anywhere else in the country. Many residents commute: Amsterdam is around 25 minutes by train, which is exactly the trade many buyers here have chosen.

The housing market in Achterwerf

The average home value (WOZ) in Achterwerf is €290,000, which puts it at #133 of 164 neighborhoods in Almere — 17% below the city median, which makes it one of the more approachable entry points into the city. For scale: Almere's cheapest buurt averages €130,000 and its most expensive €1,212,000, so Achterwerf sits in the budget band of the city.

The direction of the market: between 2015 and 2025 the average WOZ value here rose from €184,000 to €320,000, up 74% — slower than the city as a whole (+105%). WOZ values lag the market by about a year, but the trend itself is reliable.

With 91% of homes owner-occupied, this is a settled buyers' neighborhood — homes change hands regularly, and you can usually find recent comparable sales on the same street to anchor your bid. Settled also means slower: owners here tend to stay, so the best houses may only list once a decade.

Who lives here

Demographically, Achterwerf is shaped by people in their late twenties to early forties (30% of its 690 residents), followed by over-65s at 23%. Households split into 39% singles and 34% families with children — a real mix rather than one lifestyle. The average household counts 2.1 people.

As for who your neighbors would be: incomes skew modest — 30% of households are in the lower national bracket.

Daily errands, coffee and dinner

Day to day: plan your groceries: the nearest large supermarket is 0.9 km away; dining out means a short trip: only 6 cafés or restaurants sit within a kilometer.

The practical checklist most buyers forget to make: pharmacy 12 min walk · GP 13 min · hospital 6.2 km · library 1.4 km. None of these will decide a purchase on their own, but a GP taking new patients nearby is the kind of thing you only miss after moving.

Families and schools

For families: the nearest primary school is 8 minutes on foot; daycare is well covered (2 locations nearby) — though Dutch waiting lists mean you register the week you know you're expecting, not the week you need it; secondary school is a 6-minute bike ride, which Dutch teenagers do in all weather.

Getting around

Getting around: the nearest train station is 5.7 km out, so day-to-day life here leans on the car or bus; the nearest highway on-ramp is 3.0 km away; households here average 1.1 cars, so assume driveways and parking are part of daily logistics.

Energy and running costs

96% of homes were built before 2000. Two identical-looking houses on the same street can differ by hundreds of euros a month once heating is counted — the energy label tells you which one you're looking at, and lenders increasingly price it into your mortgage too.

Before you bid in Achterwerf

Before you bid in Achterwerf: the price gap with the rest of Almere is real, but so is the reason for it — walk the neighborhood at different times of day before committing.

None of these averages can tell you whether the specific house you found is fairly priced — that depends on its size, energy label, state of maintenance and the recent sales around it. That is exactly what a free HomeReview report checks, in about 10 seconds, for any Dutch address.

Frequently asked questions

Similar neighborhoods in Almere

Closest in price — worth a look if Achterwerf is out of reach or you want alternatives.