Apartments, rooms and studios for rent in Ooststellingwerf

Rent in Ooststellingwerf and you will most likely rent a village house with a garden: houses make up 63% of the listings, and 53% of all listings mention a garden. Based on over 100 listings tracked by RentHunter in Ooststellingwerf since March 2024, the average rent across all types is €846 a month for an average of 84 m², and 80% of listings ask between €502 and €1,099.

Ooststellingwerf is not one town but a rural municipality of 25,540 inhabitants in the southeast of Friesland, made up of villages such as Oosterwolde, Appelscha, Haulerwijk, Donkerbroek and Makkinga. The rental stock suits households that want space for less money: people who work in the region, families moving out of Groningen or Drenthe for a larger home, and remote workers who travel only a few days a week. 13% of listings are aimed at expats.

Picture the week: you cycle from a rented house in Oosterwolde to the shops in the village centre, and on Saturday you walk straight into the forest at Appelscha. That rhythm, with a bus or a car instead of a train to work, is what renting in Ooststellingwerf looks like. The sections below break the market down by type, by village and by commute.

• Houses: 63% of listings, 95 m² on average Houses are the backbone of the Ooststellingwerf rental market, with 96 listings at an average of €885 a month for 95 m². A garden is the rule rather than the exception in these villages, and the larger plots often come with a shed or a driveway. Mind the Dutch way of counting: listings count the living room among the rooms, so a house with four rooms has three bedrooms. Browse the houses for rent in Ooststellingwerf and filter by village first, because a house in Appelscha and one in Haulerwijk lead to very different commutes.
• Apartments: 32% of listings, from €664 Apartments are the cheaper way into Ooststellingwerf: 49 listings at an average of €664 a month for 69 m². An apartment suits a single renter, a couple or an older resident who no longer wants a garden to maintain. Look first in the larger villages such as Oosterwolde, where shops and bus stops are within walking distance, and see the apartments for rent in Ooststellingwerf for what is listed now.
• Garden in 53% of listings, parking in 19% Across all types in Ooststellingwerf, 53% of listings mention a garden, 19% mention parking, 16% mention a balcony and 22% are listed as furnished. Most homes are therefore let unfurnished or gestoffeerd, which in Dutch rentals means with floors and curtains but without furniture. 78% of listings state that registration at the address is possible; check that line in the listing details before you plan a move.

Living in Ooststellingwerf means choosing a village first and a home second, because shops, schools and bus links differ from one village to the next. The municipality sits on the border of Friesland and Drenthe, and its neighbours are just as rural: Opsterland, to the northwest around Gorredijk and Beetsterzwaag, and Noordenveld, across the provincial border around Roden, are the first places to compare if nothing fits in Ooststellingwerf.

Oosterwolde is the largest village of Ooststellingwerf and the seat of the town hall, so it has the widest choice of shops, supermarkets and secondary schools. A rental in Oosterwolde lets a household without a second car do daily errands on foot or by bike, and the regional buses start from here.

Appelscha, in the south of Ooststellingwerf, borders the Drents-Friese Wold National Park, with forest, heath and drifting sand on the doorstep. Renters who pick Appelscha usually trade a longer commute for walking and cycling routes that start at the front door.

Haulerwijk lies in the northeast of Ooststellingwerf, near the border with Drenthe, on the side of the municipality nearest to Groningen. That makes Haulerwijk the practical base for a renter who drives north to work every day and still wants a village house with a garden.

Commuting from Ooststellingwerf starts by bus, bike or car, because the municipality has no railway station. The N381 runs through the municipality and links Oosterwolde with Drachten to the northwest, and the nearest intercity stations lie outside Ooststellingwerf.

Groningen is about 68 minutes from Ooststellingwerf by public transit, for 50 km, measured from the middle of the municipality. Groningen has the largest job market of the north, with the university and the academic hospital, so it is the main daily destination for renters here; time the trip from your exact village before you sign.

Assen, the capital of Drenthe, has an intercity station on the line between Groningen and Zwolle, and many commuters from Ooststellingwerf drive or take the bus there before boarding the train. If a short walk to a station matters more than a large garden, compare the rental market in Assen with the villages of Ooststellingwerf.