High-rise buildings in the western part of The Netherlands are subject to settlement as aresult of compression of deep-lying cohesive layers. The size of the compression and creepdeformation depends on the load increment in the compressible layers which is determined bybuilding dimensions, permanent load and foundation level. In addition, the properties of thecompressible layers are important. A great uncertainty herein is the pre-consolidation stressor initial creep rate of these layers. On the basis of InSAR - satellite data of existing high-risebuildings, the current settlement rate can be measured and a good estimate is possible of,in particular, the pre-consolidation stress in the compressible layers resulting in the observedsettlement rate.