Renting a Home in Dronten

On June 29, 1957, the Eastern Flevoland polder dried up, after nine months of continuous pumping by three pumping stations. Five years later, on April 26, 1962, the first residents came to Dronten. There was no village to move to — there was a plan on paper and a construction site in the clay. Whoever settled here was a pioneer, whether they were farmers on the new plots or families who were allocated a home in the first streets.

That pioneering history is not yet a lifetime old. The municipality of Dronten — with the towns of Dronten, Biddinghuizen, and Swifterbant — now has over 42,000 inhabitants and has had its own train station on the Hanzelijn since 2012. It is a planned city in the literal sense: every street, every neighborhood, every green area was designed on the drawing board. This results in a living environment that fundamentally differs from organically grown cities — rationally laid out, spacious, and green everywhere.

A City Without a Past on the Bottom of the Sea

What makes Dronten unique among Dutch residential areas is the total absence of historical layering. There is no medieval core, no 19th-century shell, no growth direction determined by a river or trade route. Everything is designed. The original district layout follows the cardinal directions — De Noord, De Zuid, De West, De Oost — and bears the pragmatism of the engineers who laid out the polder.

During the digging of ditches and laying of foundations, wreckage emerged from Allied aircraft shot down over the IJsselmeer during World War II. Approximately one hundred and twenty planes lie in the polder soil. The Airmen's Monument in front of the town hall — a propeller from a British Lancaster from 1943 — commemorates what lay here before the land existed: water, and beneath that water, the remnants of a war.

Even deeper in the soil, near Swifterbant, archaeologists found traces of habitation from the Middle Stone Age. The findings were so unique that similar archaeological discoveries worldwide are referred to as the Swifterbant culture. This part of the Netherlands is simultaneously the youngest and one of the oldest inhabited.

De Meerpaal and the Dronten Center

The cultural heart of Dronten is inextricably linked to one building and one architect. In 1965, Frank van Klingeren designed a community center based on the model of a Greek agora — a covered village square of 3,500 square meters with glass facades, where market, theater, church service, sports, and café intertwined. Van Klingeren altered Dronten's traffic plan so that the building literally stood in the way: you had to drive towards it, and therefore also look inside. De Meerpaal was opened by Queen Juliana in 1967, the press called it 'the thing from Dronten', and television programs like Stuif Es In made the building nationally known.

The history thereafter is turbulent — a renovation in 1987 that destroyed its open character, a lawsuit by Van Klingeren, demolition plans that were reversed after protests from Minister Pronk, and finally a redesign by Atelier PRO that preserved elements of the original. The current center of Dronten, significantly renewed around the turn of the century, has lost much of its original 1960s architecture. But De Meerpaal still stands, as a cultural center and event venue, and as the most discussed building in the city's short history.

De Noord, De Zuid, De West, De Oost: Living by Cardinal Direction

The original neighborhoods of Dronten bear names that are nowhere else in the Netherlands. De Noord, De Zuid, De West, and De Oost are the four quadrants around the center, built in the 1960s and 1970s. The layout is typical for planned polder cities: wide streets, separated bicycle and car traffic, many green and play facilities, and a mix of terraced houses, semi-detached houses, and some apartment complexes.

The 137 very first homes in Dronten, chalet-style houses on the Lijzijde, were restored in 2015-2016 according to the original 1959 building plan. Ten of them have been declared municipal monuments — the youngest monuments in the country, in a city itself only sixty years old.

In the decades thereafter, newer neighborhoods have been added: De Munten and De Gilden with modern housing, and the Hanzekwartier around the station on the Hanzelijn, which is developing into a mixed residential, work, and study area. The newest development is De Graafschap, on the former site of the Flevomanege, with a mix of detached houses, semi-detached houses, terraced houses, and apartments.

Dronten's housing stock predominantly consists of single-family homes with gardens — the polder's space makes this possible. Apartments are mainly found in and around the center and in the newer neighborhoods. Detached houses are scattered at the edges, where development transitions into agricultural land.

Biddinghuizen: Festival Grounds and Veluwemeer

Biddinghuizen is located ten kilometers south of Dronten, on the Veluwemeer, and leads a double life. For its approximately 7,200 inhabitants, it is a close-knit polder village with its own facilities, two supermarkets, sports clubs, and a recreational harbor on the Hoge Vaart. For the rest of the Netherlands, it is the location of Walibi Holland and the adjacent sixty-hectare event grounds where Lowlands, Defqon.1, and Opwekking annually attract tens of thousands of visitors.

As a place to live, Biddinghuizen attracts families looking for the combination of polder space and proximity to the Veluwe — Harderwijk, Elburg, and Nunspeet are across the lake. The Spijkbos on the Veluwemeer is a recreational area with walking paths where dogs are allowed to roam freely. The village is growing: a new development area is under construction on the south side with the Noaberpark, and in 2023, a tiny house village opened on the Kleine Wierse. Housing prices are lower than in Dronten itself.

Swifterbant: Prehistory and New Developments

Swifterbant, five kilometers west of Dronten, is the smallest of the three towns. The name refers to a place mentioned as early as 793 in the Gelre and Zutphen charter book — long before the Zuiderzee swallowed the land. During the digging of ditches in the polder, flint tools and pottery shards from 4000-1500 BC were found at a depth of five meters: the Swifterbant culture.

The modern Swifterbant is a quiet village with a rural character and basic amenities. The largest development is 't Luweland, a new residential area on the south side with approximately 750 owner-occupied and rental homes. For those willing to look outside Dronten itself, Swifterbant offers the lowest rental prices in the municipality and the most tranquility — with the same accessibility via the N307 and N309.

Responding to a Property in Dronten

The free-sector housing supply in Dronten changes regularly. Homes in the newer neighborhoods and in Biddinghuizen go fastest. Make sure you have your proof of income, employer's statement, and ID digitally ready when you respond. On our platform, you can set up an alert to receive immediate notification when a new home becomes available in your desired town and price range.

When viewing properties in Dronten, it is advisable to pay attention to the energy label. The housing stock largely dates from the 1960s and 1970s — some homes have since been insulated and equipped with modern installations, others have not. The difference in heating costs can be significant. Also ask about the minimum rental period and the notice period: these vary per landlord.