Eindhoven suburb is hub and home for multinational expats

A recent influx of expat professionals into the Meerhoven district of Eindhoven has resulted in the area’s rechristening as Expathoven.

The Dutch city of Eindhoven is bidding to be the Netherlands’ most international city due to a massive influx of expat tech professionals, most of whom have settled in the Meerhoven district. The vast majority of the 11 thousand residents in the area are highly skilled expats who’ve arrived to take up jobs in ultra-high tech companies such as leaders in the semiconductor sector NXP and ASML. The area has now been dubbed ‘Expathoven’ by local residents.

The arrival of a huge number of well-paid expat professionals has spurred an economic revival in the district, with 80 per cent of new-build homes bought by incomers. One enterprising property agent organises a twice-yearly luxury bus tour around Meerhoven, specifically catering for incoming expats looking for homes in an area which, five years ago, was a real estate desert due to overbuilding. The district is unique in several ways as it’s a self-contained city within a city featuring wide-open spaces, water features, trees, retail outlets and an expat-aimed healthcare centre, all sited three kilometres from the central city and close by the airport.

It’s now a massive expat community whose members have arrived from all over the world, and has its own website giving details of local and international events, community services, education info, transportation news and issues likely to be of concern to expats. Happily-settled multinational expats spread their appreciation of the community online and by word of mouth, attracting even more incomers to the suburb. Diverse nationals and their families include Chinese, Indians, Russians, Poles, Bulgarians and Taiwanese as well as Westerners, with the majority working as engineers, managers or IT specialists.