Renting a Home in Duiven
Liemers village that became a town in ten years.
In 1984, you couldn't buy a spool of thread in Duiven. It was a Gelderland village of eleven thousand inhabitants along the Rijksweg, with a Remigius church whose tower dates from the twelfth century and manorial estates that appear in records as early as 1400. Then the province of Gelderland designated Duiven as a growth center. Between 1986 and 1994, the population doubled — from 11,731 to 22,395 inhabitants. Residential areas sprung up from the river clay, the ring road was constructed, the A12 connection was added, and the De Elshof shopping center filled a village that suddenly became too large for its amenities.
Houses in Duiven
This growth center history explains why Duiven looks the way it does: a historic core with a twelfth-century church and medieval manorial estates, surrounded by rings of 1980s and 1990s construction. Today, the municipality has almost 25,000 inhabitants, spread over three core areas — Duiven, Groessen, and Loo — and functions as a commuter town in the Green Metropolitan Region Arnhem-Nijmegen. The train station, reopened in 1980 after decades of closure, takes you to Arnhem in ten minutes.
Cleves Enclave on the Rhine
The history of Duiven is older than that of many cities in the region. A charter from 838 mentions a consecrated church with a court and serfs in 'Thuvine' — the oldest mention of the village. The name Duiven means 'emergence': the settlement arose on a river dune, a sandy elevation in the otherwise flat river clay landscape of the Liemers.
What most people don't know: for centuries, Duiven was not Dutch but territory of Cleves. In 1355, the Duke of Gelderland mortgaged the area to his brother-in-law, the Count of Cleves. That pledge was never redeemed. Through Cleves, Duiven came under Prussian rule, and only in 1816 — after the decisions of the Congress of Vienna — was the Liemers added to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This Cleves history explains why the region remained predominantly Catholic while the rest of Gelderland largely became Protestant, and why the annual sacrament procession on the last Sunday of August still draws crowds.
Traces of this long history are surprisingly concrete. On Ploenstraat stands the manorial estate De Magerhorst, a national monument with an octagonal stair tower from 1549, equipped with a machicolation — a throwing-hole that is rare in the Netherlands. According to a Gelderland legend, the ghosts of the lords of De Magerhorst and the nearby castle De Ploen duel every year at Christmas, at the striking of the bells. De Ploen itself has disappeared; a farm now stands on its site. The Remigiuskerk, central to the village, has a tower from the twelfth century and a Gothic nave from the fifteenth.
€934 / year
De Woerd and the Old Strip: Living on the River Dune
De Woerd is the oldest part of Duiven — the sand dune where the village began. Ploenstraat, with its green verges, avenue planting, and sightlines to the open agricultural land, still has a strong rural character. Here stand the manorial estates, historic farms, and linear development dating back to long before the growth center era. The Rijksweg, the former connecting road to Arnhem, also has a strip of older buildings, including the Oude Raedthuys — the former town hall from 1864, now a restaurant.
The center around De Elshof is post-war and functional: shopping center, town hall, sports hall De Spelleward. The Remigiuskerk occupies its own position amidst all this new construction, surrounded by old trees and the churchyard. The housing supply in the center is mixed: apartments in and above the shopping area, and directly surrounding them the first post-war buildings.
The Growth Center Districts: Duiven-West, Duiven-Zuid, and Lommerweide
The vast majority of Duiven's housing stock dates from the growth core period 1986-1994. The districts were built to alleviate the housing shortage in Arnhem, Velp, and Rheden, and this translates into a recognizable profile: spacious single-family neighborhoods with terraced houses, semi-detached houses, front gardens, back gardens, and separated bicycle and car traffic.
Duiven-West is the largest expansion, with a mix of rental and for-sale properties. Duiven-Zuid connects to the older Bloemenbuurt — the 1960s streets with names like Rozenstraat, Anemonenstraat, and Dahliastraat — and offers a similar profile with slightly more variation in housing types. Lommerweide, on the northwest edge, is the greenest of the three: abundant planting, water features, and a park-like layout.
Overall, the quality of the growth center districts is good — these are homes built in a short period according to uniform standards, with a spacious layout and ample greenery. The downside of this uniformity is that the districts have little character among themselves: someone placed in Duiven-West with their eyes blindfolded would not know if it was Duiven or a random growth center district elsewhere in the Netherlands.
Droo-Noord and the Older Layers
Southwest of the center lies Droo-Noord, built in the 1970s on the sandy ridge known as 'de Droo'. Between Droo-Noord and the center lies the Eltingerhof, a neighborhood from 1973 named after one of the medieval courts that once stood on this territory. The Eltingerhof already appears in the charter of 838 as 'Alatinge' — a settlement important enough to be the center of the local court organization.
These older neighborhoods have a different character than the large-scale growth center districts: smaller scale, with more variation in architectural style and sometimes remnants of the original landscape structure. Rental prices here are generally slightly lower than in the newer neighborhoods, but the supply is more limited because many homes are privately owned.
Groessen and Loo: The Other Cores
The municipality of Duiven comprises more than just the village of Duiven. Groessen, southeast towards the Pannerdensch Canal, is a small core with its own church, also mentioned in the charter of 838. The name comes from 'Groes' — grassland — and refers to the fertile floodplains of the Rhine. It is a quiet village with little rental housing supply but plenty of space and a direct relationship with the river landscape.
Loo lies west of Duiven, towards Westervoort. It already had its own chapel in 1300 and was separated from Duiven by the Rhine in the early Middle Ages. Today, Loo is the smallest core, with a rural character that contrasts with the commuter profile of Duiven itself. Those willing to look outside the main core will find the most tranquility in Groessen and Loo — but must also accept that amenities are more limited and public transport is scarce.
Ten Minutes to Arnhem
Duiven station is on the Arnhem-Zevenaar-Winterswijk line, with a twice-hourly intercity service to Arnhem (ten minutes) and from there on to Utrecht and the Randstad. The A12 provides direct car access to Arnhem and the German border. The Betuweroute, the freight railway to Germany, runs through the municipal territory but has no stop here. Arnhem center is reachable by bicycle within half an hour.
The Liemers as a Search Area
Duiven is located in the Liemers, the region between the Rhine, IJssel, and Oude IJssel. Westervoort (directly to the west) and Zevenaar (directly to the east) offer comparable living environments with their own character. The three municipalities share a labor market and are increasingly approached as a single living region. Broadening your search area significantly increases the available supply.
River Landscape and Floodplains
The Pannerdensch Canal — the bifurcation of the Rhine into the Waal and Nederrijn — runs south of Duiven. The floodplains and the Duivense Broek offer an open river landscape directly adjacent to the built-up area. The Loowaard, an island in the river, is a special piece of nature with low river dunes. It's the type of landscape you can reach by bicycle from the growth center districts in five minutes.
Responding to a Home in Duiven
The liberalized sector supply in Duiven is limited and changes quickly — popular single-family homes in the growth center districts attract multiple candidates. Ensure your proof of income, employer's statement, and identification are immediately available when you respond. On our platform, you can set up an alert to be notified directly when a new home comes online in your desired neighborhood and price range.
During viewings in the growth center districts, it is wise to ask about the energy label and any insulation work. Homes from the 1980s and 1990s vary greatly in the extent to which they have been made sustainable — the difference in heating costs can be significant. Also check the condition of the garden: for many rental homes with gardens, maintenance is the tenant's responsibility.
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