Windowless bunker hits Amsterdam real estate market for €1.1 million

A two-story, windowless bomb shelter on Postjeskade in Amsterdam is hitting the real estate market for an asking price of 1.1 million euros. According to the owner and realtor, the bunker can be turned into anything, from a music studio to a villa, AT5 reports.

The bunker was used as a pumping station for sewage treatment until the 1950s. "Then the municipality devised a plan to build 200 air-raid shelters for the population of the city. This space was already empty, so it was converted in the 1960s," Kees van Leeuwen, who has been involved with old bunkers and air-raid shelters for years, said to the broadcaster.

In the end, the municipality built 80 air-raid shelters that turned out not to be needed. "Fortunately," said said Gino IJisberg, who bought the bunker in 2011 for 15 thousand euros and now intends to sell it for a significant markup. The plot of land consists of the bunker and an above-ground plot of 70 square meters. "It may seem like a lot for something that still has little use, but we are selling it deliberately before zoning," IJisberg said. So that the next owner can decide what to do with it.

A music studio could be a cool idea, the broker said to AT5. "You can make noise there 24/7. If an artist builds his house next door, it would be perfect,"  IJisberg said. "We look closely at who is bidding and where the bunker is going. We think it is important that it does not go to a large developer, for example. There must be a purpose behind it."