According to the 2019 Residential Ranking by real estate company JLL, the most popular place to live in the Netherlands is Amsterdam! JLL publishes this ranking once every three years, last time Amsterdam headed the list too!

Popular places to live

JLL creates its ranking using a computer model which computes data from 84 large municipalities (with more than 50.000 residents) to come up with the most ideal places to live. The model looks at 37 different indicators, including demographic growth, house prices, accessibility and safety. The ranking maps the places that are interesting for investors. Amsterdam has yet again come out on top, mainly due to the economic growth in the city, its accessibility and the number of facilities.

Whilst Amsterdam may top the ranking, what’s interesting is that the top 10 is not just made up of the municipalities where the largest cities in the country are located. Coming in second place is Utrecht, which gets points for its central location as well as its highly educated population and increasing prices. The quality of residences in Utrecht also bumps up its score.

The other municipalities joining Amsterdam and Utrecht in the top five most popular places to live are Delft, Amersfoort and Zwolle, respectively 3rd, 4th and 5th. According to JLL, the medium-sized cities such as Delft, Amersfoort, Almere and Zwolle are rising in the ranking because of their positive economic developments and forecasts, good accessibility and demography.

Bottom of the ranking

At the bottom of the ranking, you can find Midden- Groningen (84), Terneuzen (83), Hoogeveen (82), Súdwest-Fryslân (81) and Emmen (80). This is, for a great deal, due to the work opportunities available. Many of the residents in these municipalities go off to study in the cities and often, they don’t return to the region.

Top 10 most popular places to live

Here are the top 10 places to live in the Netherlands, according to the 2019 Residential Ranking.

1. Amsterdam
2. Utrecht
3. Delft
4. Amersfoort
5. Zwolle
6. Almere
7. Haarlemmermeer
8. Arnhem
9. Groningen
10. The Hague

For more information, please see the JLL website.