The Saga of Our First House

After many years in Amsterdam, Pillar and I are finally doing it: we're buying our first house. What follows is the story of that journey, from the moment we found the apartment to (hopefully) the day we get the keys. I'll keep updating this page as the saga unfolds.

Finding "The One"

If you've ever house-hunted in Amsterdam, you know the drill: scroll the listings, fall in love with a place, find out it's already sold, repeat. We'd been through that cycle more times than I can count.

On April 8 we went to see an apartment at HIBI, another new development in Amstelkwartier. 104 m², 4th floor, garden view. Pretty on paper. But during the meeting with the agent it sank in: delivery in 34 months, almost three years of waiting. Only one bathroom, no separate guest toilet. And a price tag that didn't quite match what was on offer. We left certain it wasn't the one.

Then we found Elements Amsterdam, a new development right on the bank of the Amstel river, in Amstelkwartier. The moment we saw the floorplans for the Sky Twin Loft apartments in the taller tower, everything clicked. Floor-to-ceiling windows, a layout that finally felt designed for the way we actually live, and a view of the city that left us silent for a moment. Our unit: T17.2, a 4-bedroom apartment on the 17th and 18th floors, a duplex up in the sky. Future address: Zinranapad 229.

The T17.2 layout is a duplex. The lower floor holds the social area: living room, integrated kitchen, guest toilet, and a deep east-facing loggia that we'll convert into Bernardo's bedroom. A loggia is a half-covered, half-open recess tucked into the building's volume, and it can be closed off and turned into a proper little room with everything he needs. The upper floor has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and the master suite, facing the Amstel.

And these are the detailed floor plans for each level of the duplex:

Lower floor (17th): social area

Upper floor (18th): bedrooms

And these were the images that locked the decision in. The interior render (high ceilings, panoramic window, that sense of space) and the eastward view by day, with Amsterdam stretching out to the horizon:

We left that visit feeling like the search was finally over.

About Elements

For anyone curious about why we fell for this building, here's a bit of what makes it special.

Elements is a 70-meter tower with 140 apartments: 70 for sale and 70 for rent. But what really stands out is the design. The building was created by Koschuch Architects using parametric design, a technique where hundreds of variations of the building's shape were tested in a 3D model, factoring in the sun's path, light, wind, and even energy generation.

The result is a building with no sharp corners, with organic contours and horizontal bronze lines that shift in perspective as you walk around it. Structural engineering is by Arup, the same firm behind the Sydney Opera House.

Seen from above, you start to understand why the design works: the tower wraps around an interior landscaped courtyard, and the stepped terraces follow the curve of the river. At night, with the facades lit, the building basically becomes a landmark in the Amstelkwartier skyline.

This sectional diagram shows how the floors are laid out, from the rooftop gardens and pool at the top, through the inner courtyard and apartments, all the way down to the lobby, coworking and ground-floor bar/restaurant:

And the sustainability is on another level: a hybrid timber, steel and concrete structure that cuts CO₂ emissions by more than 50%. Solar panels integrated into the balcony edges power the elevators and climate systems. There are 2,300 m² of green roof areas, plus 700 m² of planted gardens, with rainwater harvesting. The building has an A+++ energy rating.

But what really won us over were the shared amenities:

• Indoor pool with a view of the Amstel
• Roof garden with actual trees. They say it feels like being "in the middle of a forest"
• Landscaped inner courtyard with greenery on all sides
• Coworking space and a ground-floor bar
• Lounge overlooking the garden

Ground-floor bar/restaurant

The original delivery forecast was Q2/Q3 2026. Today, delivery is scheduled for December 2026 or January 2027.

Picking the Team

Buying a house in the Netherlands is a team sport. You need a mortgage advisor (hypotheekadviseur), and picking the right one makes all the difference. We ended up working with Bob, from De Hypotheekpartners, an independent advisor who compares more than 40 banks. His recommendation: ING, with a 10-year fixed rate.

The Contracts Arrived (and We Signed!)

April 14, 2026

This was the day the heart raced. Koen, our contact at KondorWessels (the developer of Elements), sent the purchase contracts. Two documents: the Koopovereenkomst (land purchase agreement) and the Aannemingsovereenkomst (apartment construction agreement). Together, they formalize everything.

I spent the night reading, taking notes, and reviewing each clause. Almost 20 pages of Dutch legalese. A few things I learned:

• In the Netherlands, many plots aren't bought. They're erfpacht (perpetual lease from the city). You pay an annual "canon" for the right to use the land
• The building comes with a Woningborg warranty: if the developer goes bankrupt, another firm finishes the build at no extra cost
• After signing, we have 7 days to change our minds at no cost
• We also have a financing protection clause: if the mortgage isn't approved within 2 months, we can cancel everything without penalty

Earlier, Koen had called to clarify a few details: the "canon" thing, the parking spot (which we can buy later if we want), and the kitchen, which is from the German brand Leicht, and we'll be visiting the showroom on April 16 to choose the design.

The kitchen, by the way, comes complete: induction cooktop, oven, fridge, dishwasher, and Quooker (that instant-boiling-water tap). The bathroom is also complete, with a walk-in shower and double sink. Even the wooden staircase between the two duplex floors is included.

What's NOT included: flooring (only the screed is delivered) and the walls come sanded, ready to paint. That's normal in the Netherlands. Almost no one delivers an apartment with the final finishes.

And by the end of the day, after going through everything, we signed. Digitally, via DocuSign, but signed. It was a bit anticlimactic, honestly. No ceremony, no champagne. Just a click and a confirmation email. But when I closed the laptop, Pillar looked at me and said: "we just bought a house."

The Kitchen: Bar or No Bar?

April 16 and 17, 2026

Wednesday was showroom day. We headed to Leicht, the German kitchen included with the apartment, to finally see, touch and choose. Design, finishes, handles, cabinet colors. The combinations were enormous, and we spent a while just looking at samples and imagining how each detail would land in our space.

The next day we got the two 3D proposals. The choice came down to two main options:

• Option 1, with bar: an island with a high counter for coffee, working, or chatting while someone cooks
• Option 2, no bar: a cleaner layout, fully focused on prep area and more room to move

Option 1: with bar/island

Option 2: no bar

Option 2: another angle

In the end, we went with the bar/island. It's hard to resist the idea of one of us cooking while the other wraps up the last meeting of the day right next to it, espresso in hand. And the kitchen floor plan, with our chosen layout, ended up like this:

The Build Is Right There!

April 23, 2026

I swung by the construction site this week and couldn't help it. I stopped to take photos from every angle. It was the first time I was seeing Elements as something ours, knowing that somewhere in those forms of timber, steel and concrete are the 17th and 18th floors that will be our home.

The tower has reached its final height. The top, that horizontal bronze line we first saw in the renders, is already there, visible from a distance. The lower floors already have their window frames installed and the facade finish is well underway. Our duplex (which sits up at the top, third apartment from above) is still wrapped in scaffolding, but you can see the structure taking shape behind the metal mesh.

From the other side of the Amstel you get a sense of scale: 70 meters tall, and the curved silhouette Koschuch designed really stands out. It's funny to think we cycled past so many times without imagining that one day that would be our window.

A few more shots from the visit, from different angles of the building:

Walking away gave me a strange feeling. All of that is going to be ours. Or rather: it already is.

I Went Back at Night

April 25, 2026

Two days later, I went back. This time at night. Pillar says I'm becoming the kind of person who takes detours just to look at the construction site, and she's right, but in my defense: Amstelkwartier at night, with the building's lights and the lit-up Watertoren Zuidergasfabriek (the old water tower from the south Amsterdam gas factory, active from the late 19th century until the 1960s, now preserved as a historical landmark of the neighborhood), is a scene worth the detour.

The scaffolding disappears in the dark, and what's left is the silhouette of the tower, just the outline of the still-incomplete top, cut against the navy-blue sky. No apartments have been delivered yet. The lights you see here and there come from the construction itself, the scaffolding, and the crews. Ours, way up high, are still asleep in the dark.

And one last shot, taken from the balcony of our current apartment, showing the contrast between the brick of the lower buildings and our future building's facade up high, still wrapped in scaffolding, but really starting to show:

Mortgage Approved!

April 25, 2026

And today the news that had us slightly anxious finally came: ING approved the mortgage. The binding offer arrived, and on the same day Pillar and I signed it. Approved and signed, same day. Mortgage Hypotheeknummer 108803800, now official.

On the same day, we also locked in the notary: Houthoff Coöperatief U.A., in the Zuidas, will handle the deed. Next big step: the passeerdatum, the day of signing at the notary, expected for late May or early June.

If you've been following the saga so far, this is probably the most important chapter. Without the mortgage, nothing happens. With it, the next stop is the notary, and after that it's just waiting for the building to be ready.

The Notary Is Booked!

April 30, 2026

Houthoff kicked things off. Jane Al, from the notary office, sent the welcome email confirming they'd received the contracts and the ING documents, and opened the process on our side: Client Identification Forms signed, passport copies sent, and the notary IBAN saved for the day's transfer.

And the big news: the notary day is May 13, 2026, at 11:00. That's the day we sign the akte van levering (deed of transfer), the mortgage goes live, the bouwdepot (construction escrow) opens, and the already-due termijnen are paid. In other words, the day the apartment officially becomes ours. I asked for a Portuguese interpreter (Houthoff offers translated sessions), because twenty pages of Dutch legalese in real time isn't a sport I'm looking to take up.

A Walk Along the Amstel

April 30, 2026

Later that same day, Pillar, our puppy and I walked to the supermarket and took the obvious detour: crossing the Amstelkwartier bridge for one more look at the build. Open sky, the river glittering, and the Elements standing tall with a "Wake up with a view, summer 2026" banner on the facade (optimistic, but so are we).

A few more shots from the walk:

A Chat with Afke

May 1, 2026

Today we had a video call with Afke Bouma, from Kondor Wessels, for a kennismakingsgesprek (an introduction call) and a walkthrough of our T17.2 documents. A bunch of useful info came out of it:

• That "window corner" you see in some drawings is fixed glass plus a small non-accessible triangular balcony. It keeps the view, you just don't step on it
• The apartment comes standard. There are no previous-buyer customizations to inherit (or undo)
• Meerwerk (paid extras through Kondor Wessels) is no longer available for our T17.2. Anything we want to change has to happen on our side, after handover
• It comes with 4 empty conduits + 1 CAT5e already wired in the living room. Good for pulling extra network and cabling later
• The slab between the 17th and 18th floors is wood. That's great: pulling cables between the two levels later is straightforward, no major work
• Bike storage with about 400 spots, on a first-come-first-served basis
• 22 garage spots available, no rush to decide
• Front door: since it's a common-area element, we can only swap the lock on the inside. The outside has to keep the building standard

One nice detail about the build: Afke explained that delivery happens top-down. The top apartments get finished first, and the schedule works its way down to the ground floor. Since ours is the third from the top, we're sitting near the front of the queue. Forecast: December 2026, with a realistic scenario of January or February 2027.

And the part we got most excited about: we booked the second visit to the apartment: Saturday, June 6, 2026, from 10:00 to 14:30. It'll be the first time since the decision to buy that we step inside and see it taking shape.

The Kitchen Is Locked In

May 7, 2026

Back to Leicht to finalize the kitchen with Suzanne. A few delightful upgrades from the first quote:

• Quooker CUBE added, sparkling and chilled filtered water straight from the tap, on top of the Quooker Fusion's boiling water. Spoiler: we're going to become hopelessly dependent on it
• The wine fridge became a Liebherr UBCgb 3731-20, two temperature zones and a glass door, the kind that looks gorgeous built into the bar
• The dishwasher went from iQ300 to Siemens iQ500 with VarioLade, and I caught the 50% off promo
• The sink, Pillar's pick, is the Reginox New York 50x40 in gunmetal, a dark metallic tone that ties in nicely with the handles

The kitchen comes with the bar/island (we'd already decided on that back in April), 5-burner induction cooktop, integrated hood, and all the cabinets in the finish we picked at the showroom. I signed the order right there, on Scrive, with Pillar next to me. Installation lands a few months before key handover.

We walked out of Leicht floating. That moment of picturing the kitchen done, the two of us cooking there together for the first time. Worth every cent.

The Final Design in 3D

May 12, 2026

Five days later, Suzanne sent over the final drawings, with 3D renders and the detailed technical plan. The walnut cabinets (that warm, dark tone) wrapping the fridge/freezer/oven, the upper cabinets in blush/champagne, the light quartz countertop, the light wood floor, and the bar/island ready for stools:

Wide view with dining area

Front view, wine fridge on the left

And the definitive technical plan, with every cabinet, appliance and measurement in place:

Original PDFs: final kitchen drawings · installation drawings

Bob's Sharp Eye (or: the day we saved almost EUR 12,000)

May 7 to 12, 2026

This chapter deserves its own spotlight. It's the kind of thing that proves why picking the right advisor matters so much.

One week before the notary, Houthoff sent over the final invoices, the so-called nota koper, which is the summary of everything we needed to pay out of pocket. Total: just over EUR 18,000. We were ready to transfer.

That's when Bob, reading the invoices line by line, hit the brakes: "Wait. Something's off with the bouwrente (construction interest) calculation."

Houthoff had charged construction interest from July 1, 2025. Almost 11 months before we'd even signed the contract. But the contract was crystal clear in Article 4 that this interest only ran after the buyer's signature, meaning from April 14, 2026.

Bob sent an email to Houthoff and Kondor Wessels, citing the exact contract articles. The first reply came back a bit defensive. He pushed back. Sent the signed PDFs as attachments. Waited.

On May 12, the eve of the notary, the response came: Kondor Wessels accepted the error, issued a credit note, and reissued all the invoices. The correct calculation was ~EUR 2,500, not EUR 14,400.

Total saved by Bob: EUR 11,901.57.

The amount to pay at the notary dropped from EUR 18,000 to under EUR 6,500. Pillar looked at me and said: "It was the best choice we made." I agree.

Today We Became Owners

May 13, 2026, 11:00

Today. Up early, strong coffee, me in a blue shirt, Pillar in a dress. We arrived at Houthoff, at Gustav Mahlerplein 50, right on time. The Portuguese translator was already there. Houthoff arranged it so we'd understand every word, in our language.

Four documents to sign:

• Akte van Levering, the deed of transfer. From this moment on, the apartment is ours
• Hypotheekakte, the mortgage deed, formalizing the ING financing
• Bouwdepotakte, the construction deposit, the account from which the remaining build instalments and the renovation budget will be paid
• Volmacht wijziging splitsing, a technical power of attorney related to the building's title division

The notary read every clause. The translator translated every clause. We signed. And when we signed the last page, Pillar squeezed my hand and we looked at each other. It was that kind of silence that follows a big wave.

We walked out as owners.

We still don't have the keys, the building won't be ready until the end of the year, but on paper, in the Kadaster, in the Netherlands, in the world: that 4-room apartment on the 17th and 18th floors of Elements, looking out over the Amstel, is ours.

The Papers Arrived

May 19, 2026

Six days after the notary, Jane Al, paralegal at Houthoff, emailed over the final package. The deeds now came certified (what the Dutch call an afschrift: official copy, stamped by the notary). This is the document that counts, forever.

What arrived:

• Akte van Levering (certified), the deed of transfer. This is the document. Without it, one day we couldn't even sell the apartment
• Hypotheekakte (certified), the mortgage deed, officially registered
• Bouwdepotakte signed, the agreement governing the use of the construction deposit
• ING offer signed, the definitive version
• Buyer's statement, the final completion statement, confirming every cent paid on the day

I saved everything into an organized folder, backed it up, shared it with Pillar. The kind of paper we probably won't open for years, but that has to stay safe for the rest of our lives. The kind you only remember you have when you need it.

It's the last piece of the purchase process. From here on, the focus shifts to the build.

We Stepped Inside

June 6, 2026

Today was the kijkdag, the construction site viewing day. Pillar, Thalita and I arrived at Bouwplaats Elements at 11:15, hard hats on (KondorWessels supplies them), sturdy shoes, flashlight in pocket, tape measure in hand. Isadora couldn't come, site rules: under-18s aren't allowed in. She stayed home with Bernardo.

Inside, the apartment is still just structure: raw walls, concrete floor, wires sticking out. But it's the first time you can actually feel the space. The proportions, the light coming through the huge living-room window, the view of the Amstel from the master bedroom, the loggia opening up the living room. Things no render or floor plan can convey.

A few surprises:

• The loggia door swings, it doesn't slide. We'd read the drawings wrong. Doesn't change the function, but it changes the feel
• The kitchen panoramic window is fixed, with no access to the small triangular balcony on the other side. The view stays beautiful; only outside cleaning becomes a question
• The island/bar looked bigger than we'd imagined. In the render it seemed compact. In real life, it takes up a good chunk of the living room. We walked out with a big decision to make

And that's exactly what happened at night: I emailed Suzanne asking to revert from Option 1 (with bar) to Option 2 (no bar), which she'd shown us in the first quote. Expensive lesson about not seeing the space in person first. Luckily the Leicht contract allows one change up to 5 months before delivery. Now we wait for the confirmation to land this week.

The Timeline

What's Next

We crossed the most important line, but the saga continues:

• Kadaster registration, in 1-2 business days the ownership becomes public record
• Bouwdepot active, in 1-2 weeks ING activates the deposit that pays the remaining build and the renovation
• Second visit to T17.2 on June 6, the first time stepping inside since we decided to buy. Camera, measuring tape, and probably a tear or two
• Flooring and curtains research over the second half of the year
• Find a painter to get the walls ready before the move
• Pre-inspection (voorschouw), in December, documenting every detail
• The keys, expected between December 2026 and January/February 2027
• Moving in, expected around March 2027, after the finishes

I'll keep updating this page as each step happens. For now, we're cautiously thrilled, mildly terrified, and deeply grateful to everyone rooting for us.

Stay tuned. This story isn't over yet.