A real-estate agent has come under fire for telling a client in Amsterdam-Zuid to strip interior features from a newly bought house before it could gain monument status.
The exchange appears in the third episode of the first season of the Dutch version of Million Dollar Listing, which has streamed on Videoland since May.
The realtor visits the buyer of a large property she helped him purchase.
He is unhappy after learning the city had the building in mind for the monuments list, a step that could complicate his renovation plans.
Advice on camera
The real estate agent first looks concerned, then reassures him that nothing has been decided and the listing is still only a plan.
Her advice is blunt: as long as the house is not yet protected, remove whatever he wants out of it right away.
She points to old cast-iron radiators he dislikes and tells him he can take them out that same day.
Under the rules, an owner may still alter or remove monumental elements until a building is formally listed.
Heritage group objects
Walther Schoonenberg of the Vereniging Vrienden van de Amsterdamse Binnenstad calls the advice inappropriate, careless and socially undesirable.
He warns that anyone who demolishes in that window can later face fines, enforcement action or orders to restore what was removed.
A professional broker, he argues, should not treat a possible listing so lightly.
Further checks show the Cuypers Genootschap has asked for the house and ten neighbouring properties to be added to the monuments list; the formal procedure has not yet begun.
City process and response
A spokesperson for stadsdeel Zuid says the buyer likely received a letter from the municipal Monuments and Archaeology department seeking permission to inspect the building.
Between that notice and the start of a listing procedure, the owner is in principle free to act.
The city sometimes uses an emergency procedure to block exactly this kind of last-minute stripping, but that step was not taken here.
The agent in question rejects the criticism, first denying the remarks and then saying they must be viewed as entertainment that was edited from many days of footage.
She insists her client did nothing illegal, the house is not on the list, and she has no regrets.
Schoonenberg welcomes the broadcast, saying it shows how historic interiors in Amsterdam can disappear before protection takes effect.
Residents and buyers dealing with older stock can check current monument status through the City of Amsterdam heritage pages before planning major works.
