October 5 update: On Saturday evening, October 4, Villa Ivicke was evicted. Around 25 people were reportedly arrested inside the building and released during the night.
Wassenaar — Today, on October 4, 2025, a large group of housing activists announces the squatting of Villa Ivicke. After 3 years of vacancy, this famous Wassenaar haunted house is finally inhabited again. The group wants to breathe new life into the cold palace, where further decay lurks as the years go by. They strive for a close-knit residential group that will take care of the building and the surrounding estate.
On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the squatting ban, this is a gift for everyone who could no longer bear the desolate sight of the caged monument along the N44 road. If it is up to the squatters, light will soon shine from heated rooms again and the vegetable garden will be hoeed to their heart’s content.
Villa Ivicke was first squatted in 2018. In 2022, the residential group had to leave the building, after a long lawsuit filed by the municipality, because it was supposedly going to be used by the owner. This is of course sheer nonsense: Bever Holding has only one employee and he enjoys his retirement abroad. A fat lie that has been confirmed for everyone with 3 years of vacancy. So it’s high time to put it back into use.
Slum king
Ivicke’s re-squatting is also a gift for the golden jubilee of Slum King Ronnie van de Putte. For 50 years (since 1975) Ronnie has been speculating with buildings, often monuments, in order to eventually be able to sell the valuable land with a lot of profit. Half of that time he has been the owner of Ivicke, which he has now let empty and rot for 25 years. The municipality of Wassenaar apparently thinks this is preferable to squatters for their idyllic villa village. Strange, because if Villa Ivicke remains empty any longer, we should not be surprised if it burns down one day, warn the heritage clubs involved. In the story of the Slum King, it has happened several times that his buildings have mysteriously gone up in flames, such as at his riding school in Noordwijk.
The squatters find it ridiculous that Van de Putte continues to get away with this rogue revenue model of speculation and destruction. For the old office block (Multipleks squat) and the adjacent empty plot next to the station square in Leiden, it was bought out by the municipality in 2010 for 17.9 million. A big reward for more than 10 years of speculation. Not only in Wassenaar and Leiden he did this trick, but also in Amsterdam, Noordwijk, Knokke-Heist, Grobbendonk and so on in a few other municipalities Ronnie caused headaches and deterioration.
Law or no law
The housing crisis has taken on extreme proportions in recent years. For more and more people, the housing shortage is turning into a degrading shit-show. Traditionally, squatting in the Netherlands has played a role for years as an important stick behind the door for unwilling property owners, as a means against vacancy, dilapidation and total destruction. After the introduction in 2010 of the Squatting and Vacancy Act, which aimed to combat squatting and vacancy, the situation has only become more distressing. In practice, as we know, the law is used unilaterally to criminalize squatting — the vacancy rate is still increasing. The housing market is dominated by companies that do not put people first, but profits: AirBnB, investment funds (such as BlackRock), anti-squatting (such as AdHoc), slum landlords (such as Prince Bernhard Jr.) and speculative vacancy. You will have to look carefully if you want to find a municipality where one or more from this list cannot be found. Often these ‘cursed five’ try to spin the story in such a way that it seems as if society would be served by their actions. No way!
Even today, after 15 years of anti-squatting legislation, squatting still proves to be an effective and sometimes necessary means of action. In a society in which the housing shortage and vacancy can continue to increase due to conscious political policy, you could see squatting as a historically inevitable practice. And living with a balaclava on is still better than sleeping under a bridge.
At the end of the day, we all have to live. We therefore believe: squatting is not a problem, but a solution!
Law or no law, squatting will stay!
Squatting assistance, advisory service for squatters in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/topic/spreekuur-ksu
Some squats in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/NL/squated/squat
Groups (social center, collective, squat) in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/NL
Events in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/NL
