AboutAnneke Oosterink Expertise Customs and daily life in general. More specifically, schools and universities. I know a lot about the way people live here.
Experience Schools and Universities, daily life and customs
Expert: Anneke Oosterink Date: 2/25/2008 Subject: moving to Netherlands
Question Hello, I will be shortly taking up a new job in Maastrischt and moving there with my family, wife and 1yr old.
- is it normal to get a 3bedroom house with garden in city and around, how much would it cost
- how much would it cost on average for a family of three on other stuff like food, clothes, dining out, travelling around
- how would be social life for an expat of asian origin, is there any racism
- how are Dutch people in general, friendly??
- does it rain/snow? how much sun do you get?
Thanks.
Answer Hello Steve,
I can't tell you how much a house like that would cost, as it can differ even per street sometimes. I can tell you that right now housing is very expensive. You should probably contact a real estate agent, they can help you finding a reasonable priced house. This is a website where you can find real estate agents in Maastricht and surroundings:
The more abbreviations behind a name, the more reliable the usually are, and sometimes also the more expensive.
Costs of living are very hard to give, as it completely depends on how and where you shop, and things like that. An average family will spent about 400/500 euros per month on food, about 1,000 euros on rent and 1,500 euros on their car. This includes gasoline. The problem here is, that it is an average family, for example food can vary enormously. If you buy food in expensive shops, it can go up to 500 euros, but if you go to discount shops, and cheap supermarkets, the costs can be as low as 250 euros a month.
As far as I know there is little or no racism, at least I have no experience with it, but that doesn't mean there is no racism at all.
As far as I know foreigners find the Dutch friendly and helpful, but also blunt. Dutch people value honesty over most things and they will not tell a polite lie, but rather say the truth. Also I've experienced that English people for example apologies for everything, I was in the underground, and when someone only walked past me they said sorry. This would seem overly polite to the Dutch. Also the Americans I know commented on the lack of smiling people in the streets. In the Netherlands someone who is smiling all the time is regarded as stupid, or ignorant.
On wikipedia there is a section with some information about climate:
The Netherlands has a moderate sea climate and in many ways is similar to Great Britain. Winters are not very cold and summers are not very hot. It can snow, but generally snow is rare.
I hope this is what you needed to know, if you need to know more just contact me.
