Number of millionaires rises in Amsterdam with skyrocketing housing prices

The number of millionaires in the Netherlands, and in Amsterdam in particular, is still on the rise, Statistics Netherlands announced on Thursday. The statistics office attributes this, at least partially, to the rapidly rising house prices in the country.

In total the Netherlands had 155,100 households with assets worth 1 million euros or more in 2015, an increase of 3.1 percent compared to 2014. In Amsterdam there were 7,900 millionaire households in 2015, 200 more than in 2014.

That means that 1.8 percent of the households in Amsterdam are millionaires. The percentage of millionaire households in the other three large Dutch cities is somewhat lower - 1.7 percent in The Hague, 1.2 percent in Utrecht and 1 percent in Rotterdam.

In previous years Statistics Netherlands did not take the value of an owned home, and the possible mortgage debt that goes with it, into account when calculating the percentage of millionaires in the country. This year the statistics office changed its calculations to take home ownership into account. Therefore the number of millionaire households is much higher than last year's statistics.