Renting a Home in the Jordaan, Amsterdam

The Jordaan is the neighborhood people envision when they dream of living in Amsterdam. Narrow canals with leaning facades, hidden courtyards behind unassuming gates, traditional pubs where your neighbor knows your name. It's also the neighborhood where tenants have to fight hardest for a home. Supply is structurally scarce, turnover is low, and competition with other renters and buyers is enormous. But whoever manages to secure an apartment here gets something in return that no other Amsterdam neighborhood offers in the same combination: a central location, a strong sense of community, and architecture that has survived four centuries.

The Jordaan was laid out in 1612 as part of a major city expansion. Not for the merchants of the canal belt, but for laborers, artisans, and refugees from the Southern Netherlands. The streets followed the existing ditch patterns of the polder land. Hence the idiosyncratic angles that deviate from the strict canal grid around it. Around 1900, over 80,000 people lived in the neighborhood. Today, there are fewer than 20,000 (2025), distributed among approximately 13,000 households, two-thirds of which are single-person households. The gentrification that began in the 1970s transformed the Jordaan from one of the city's poorest areas to one of its most expensive. But unlike many gentrified neighborhoods, the sense of community has remained. In the pubs along the Egelantiersgracht, at the Noordermarkt on Saturday mornings, and in the way neighbors greet each other.

What Kind of Home Can You Rent in the Jordaan?

Anyone looking for a rental home in the Jordaan must adjust their expectations. Single-family homes with gardens do not exist here. The available properties consist almost entirely of upper floors in historic buildings: narrow canal houses of three to four floors with steep stairs, high ceilings, and compact layouts.

The typical rental property is a two-room apartment of 45 to 65 square meters on the second or third floor. The stairs are steep. Sometimes too steep for a couch, which must be hoisted through the window using a pulley. Ceilings are high, canal-side rooms are bright, while back rooms are smaller and darker. Three-room apartments exist but are scarce and attract dozens of responses. Studios and one-room apartments appear regularly and are snatched up quickly. If you rent a room in the Jordaan, you typically share a canal house with housemates. This is most common among students and young professionals.

Three-quarters of all homes in the Jordaan are rental properties. This is an exceptionally high percentage for a neighborhood of this price level. However, the percentage is misleading: a large portion consists of long-term rentals with residents who have lived in the same place for decades. What comes onto the market is a fraction of the total.

The majority of the buildings date from the nineteenth century: renovated apartment floors originally built for working-class families. The seventeenth-century canal houses on the Bloemgracht and Egelantiersgracht are architecturally the most unique, but also the least available. Many of these buildings are national monuments, which limits renovations and slows down modernizations. Those who rent here live in heritage. With all the charm and limitations that come with it: creaking wooden floors, single glazing that makes insulation an adventure, and stairwells where you can't get a washing machine through.

The Canals: Bloemgracht, Egelantiersgracht, Brouwersgracht

The canals form the skeleton of the Jordaan and largely determine the atmosphere of the street where you live. An apartment on the Bloemgracht overlooks one of Amsterdam's most picturesque stretches of water. The Egelantiersgracht is narrower and quieter, with leaning facades and bridges so low that you can almost touch passing boats. The Brouwersgracht, on the northern border, is consistently named one of the city's most beautiful canals: wide, calm, with buildings closer in size to those in the main canal belt than the rest of the Jordaan.

The Prinsengracht forms the eastern border of the neighborhood and is UNESCO protected. The Anne Frank House is located on the Prinsengracht, attracting over a million visitors annually. Good for history, less so for peace and quiet if you live directly opposite.

Not every canal in the Jordaan is quiet. The Looiersgracht and Elandsgracht are busier, with more traffic and hospitality venues. But even there, an apartment on the water offers a different experience than a home on a street without a canal. Those few meters of water make the difference between city life and city quiet.

Streets and Neighborhoods: Where to Look for What?

The Westerstraat is the main shopping street in the Jordaan. On Mondays, the 'Lapjesmarkt' (fabric market) takes place here, a textile market that has existed for generations. The rest of the week, it's a quiet street with shops and cafes. Apartments above the shops are popular: on the first floor, you're right in the middle of neighborhood life; on the third floor, you hardly hear anything from it.

The Haarlemmerstraat and Haarlemmerdijk, on the north side of the Jordaan, have grown in recent years to become one of Amsterdam's most popular shopping streets. The mix of independent shops and hospitality venues strikes a balance between trendy and accessible. Rental homes on the Haarlemmerdijk are relatively large. The buildings there are wider than in the rest of the Jordaan. They rarely become available.

The Rozengracht, on the south side, is busier and less charming. It's the neighborhood's main artery: tram lines, car traffic, the constant flow of cyclists. Upper floors on the Rozengracht are slightly more affordable than on the canals, but the trade-off is noise. If you're looking for quiet, you need to go into the side streets.

Between the canals lie the Negen Straatjes (Nine Streets). Strictly speaking, just outside the Jordaan, but so intertwined with daily life that they are considered part of it. These are the cross streets between Prinsengracht and Singel, full of boutiques and coffee shops.

Daily Life as a Renter

You do your grocery shopping at the Albert Heijn on Westerstraat or at smaller supermarkets scattered throughout the neighborhood. On Saturdays, Noordermarkt is the destination: a farmers' market with organic produce in the morning, followed by a flea market. The Lindengracht also has a Saturday market. These markets give the Jordaan the feeling of a village within the city. You run into your neighbors, you know the stallholders, and you buy cheese from someone who knows your name.

There's plenty of catering: traditional 'brown' pubs like Café 't Smalle and Café Papeneiland have existed for centuries. Newer coffee shops and restaurants are concentrated around Haarlemmerstraat and the Negen Straatjes. Vondelpark is a ten-minute bike ride away. The city center (Dam, Central Station) is five minutes. The Westerkerk, on the Prinsengracht, chimes every fifteen minutes. Some tenants call it ambiance; others buy earplugs.

The Jordaan is a neighborhood for people who want to live outdoors. The homes are small, but the city starts at your doorstep. That's the trade-off every renter in the Jordaan makes: sacrificing square meters for a life that mostly takes place on the street, on the canal, and in the pub.

Accessibility

The Jordaan does not have its own metro station, but accessibility is nevertheless good. Especially if you're on a bike. Amsterdam Central is a ten-minute bike ride. Vondelpark five. Oud-Zuid fifteen. The bicycle is the primary mode of transport in the Jordaan, and the narrow streets are better suited for it than for cars.

Tram lines 13, 17, and 19 serve the Rozengracht and Westermarkt, connecting the neighborhood to Central Station and the rest of the city. But most residents only use public transport when it rains. For everything else, the bike is faster.

A car in the Jordaan is more of a burden than a luxury. The streets are narrow, parking is expensive and limited, and the neighborhood is intentionally designed to be car-free. Expect a waiting list for a parking permit and high costs. Most tenants in the Jordaan do not own a car. And they don't miss it.

The search for a rental home in the Jordaan is a marathon, not a sprint. Supply is small, demand is enormous, and most properties are taken the same day. Respond the same day a property appears online. Always provide a complete dossier: proof of income, employer's statement, copy of ID, and a reference from a previous landlord if you have one. Be flexible in terms of floor and surface area. The difference between the second and fourth floor can be the difference between getting a home and being rejected. And consider the adjacent neighborhoods of Oud-West and Westerpark as your search area: similar atmosphere, more supply.