15 comments

  • t0mas88 29 minutes ago

    People don't really live there, these are holiday/recreational homes. My family owns two of those islands with a holiday home.

    Typically you use them for the weekend. My mom for example lives in a busy city and has a small garden, she uses the holiday home as a weekend getaway and a place to keep the sailing boat.

    The Netherlands are small and this area is very central, about 20 minutes drive from Amsterdam or Utrecht. So most owners use it in the same way.

      sundache 26 minutes ago

      You're not allowed to live there officially, but some people do.

        t0mas88 18 minutes ago

        Yes but those mostly live landside, there are holiday homes at the edge of the lake as well. There was a plan to allow permanent use, but I think it now changed to only allowing it for people that already live there and no new cases.

          CalRobert 6 minutes ago

          Seems a shame in a housing crisis.

            analog31 a minute ago

            Let me guess, no sewage disposal.

            retired a minute ago

            There is a reason for it. Infrastructure, access roads, public transit stops, build quality, utilities. The Netherlands has very high standards for homes and the direct surroundings and these homes do not meet those criteria. You would also have significantly more emissions if people started living there which would go against the emission limits for nearby nature.

  • DivingForGold 8 minutes ago

    I read these properties are actually some of the most expensive properties in The Netherlands ($ million dollar).

    But no electricity (need generator) and you cannot drive your car to your lakehouse.

    Plus, I bet the mosquitos are horrible, it is a former swamp.

  • lefra 43 minutes ago

    Obnoxious cookie banner with no "reject all" button. Too bad, it sounded interesting.

      clickety_clack 40 minutes ago

      Isn’t that actually illegal under GDPR? There’s a reason all the other sites allow you to opt out and it’s not because they want to do that.

        CalRobert 9 minutes ago

        Violating gdpr is apparently legal. But even having opt out instead of opt in is in violation

  • Deukhoofd 41 minutes ago

    I wonder how they're doing right now with water levels reaching critical low points.

      t0mas88 23 minutes ago

      Water levels in this area are tightly managed by pumps. Also in normal times they pump water in and out to keep a specific level. All of this is lower than the Amsterdamrijnkanaal, so without pumps it would flood, water doesn't naturally flow out of this place only from evaporation.

  • yieldcrv 44 minutes ago

    I googled peat so you dont have to

    Peat is a soft, spongy material made from dead plants that did not fully rot. It forms very slowly in wet, swampy places called bogs

    It is used as fuel as well as fertilizer

      clickety_clack 37 minutes ago

      It usually holds many times its solid weight in water. If you add load to it by building something on it (without designing around the ground conditions) it can compress to a fraction of its volume, resulting in ground settlements that can be very large.

      mistrial9 13 minutes ago

      pre-industrial peoples in some parts of the world used this material extensively.. some still do