There is a piece of paper on the entrance door of the Street Jump indoor trampoline park with a short text: ‘We are open until May 2030!’ Inside, the whole school class jumps on different trampolines. “Our regular customers immediately started calling: are you leaving?”, says counter worker Diana Reker (50) as she looks at the happily jumping children with a smile. So no, not directly. Although the entire sports and event center has already been sold to ASML, there is no need to evacuate it in the short term. The residents of the thirteen houses sold on Heerseweg, mainly semi-detached apartments, also do not have to move before 2026.
Street Jump Veldhoven claims to be “the nicest and cleanest indoor trampoline park in the Netherlands”. Jumping is jumping from one trampoline to another. “Jump areas” are highlighted with different colors. Many parties are organized, also by ASML employees, says Reker. “I see more ASML people here than non-ASML people,” adds his younger colleague Beau Verwimp (18).
Reker also notices that Veldhoven’s attitude towards ASML’s rapid growth is changing. “I personally don’t understand why they don’t put that extension somewhere in the middle of the country,” he says. ‘Why does everything have to be in Veldhoven or Brabant? Yes, they started here once. But it just gets out of hand. Now we’re stuck in all those traffic jams.
My colleague Verwimp: “I noticed in particular that I can no longer buy a house because of ASML.”
The housing market is closed to most young people in the Netherlands. But competition from high-earning knowledge workers from abroad, who also enjoy significant tax benefits, makes it even more difficult for newcomers in Veldhoven and the surrounding area.