Even in a small country such as the Netherlands, spatial variations in house prices are considerable. This paper addresses the question about the extent to which these variations in house prices can be explained by differences in physical, social and functional characteristics of the residential environment. Data on the prices and characteristics of houses were linked with a variety of attributes of the residential environment. We used hedonic price modelling to derive different models of property prices from which the contribution of the characteristics of the residential environment were estimated. It is demonstrated that regional house price variations can indeed largely be explained by characteristics of the residential environment. An important factor in these regional price differences is the accessibility to employment opportunities. Copyright (c) 2008 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.