Dutch housing prices rising by €313 per day on average

Homeowners have gained an average of 313 euros per day in the third quarter, at least on paper. According to analysis agency Calcasa, this was the daily increase in the value of their home. The price increase of housing has never been this big, according to the researchers.

According to Calcassa, at the end of September, the average house in the Netherlands cost 417,000 euros, 28,500 euros more than the same time last year. There are significant differences between the provinces. Houses in Utrecht rose in price by 505 euros per day, making the province the frontrunner. Noord-Holland homes became 462 euros more expensive per day. Limburg was a the bottom with 165 euros per day.

At the municipal level, the wealth of homeowners in Blaricum, Bloemendaal, and Laren increased the fastest. Calcasa calculated that this involved price increases of more than 800 euros per day. Homeowners in Utrecht saw their home values increase most in the four major cities.

House prices are rising faster and faster. This is partly attributed to a shortage of housing in the Netherlands. In addition, the historically low interest rates push the value of homes further. On the one hand, they ensure that homebuyers can take out higher mortgages. On the other hand, investors are increasingly looking to housing as an investment to generate returns because bonds, for example, no longer yield much.

Calcasa also pointed out the abnormal price increases of houses in the Netherlands. Before 2020, the average national increase in house prices was never higher than 100 euros per day. In the past quarter, even house prices in Pekela in Groningen and Brunssum in Limburg rose by more than 120 euros per day, while houses in these municipalities previously did not rise much.

There are also warnings of overheating. The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) pointed out that first-time buyers in the housing market are taking increasingly greater risks to buy a house, for example, by taking on high debts and not agreeing to a financing condition. According to the regulator, this makes the Dutch economy sensitive to a sudden turnaround in sentiment. For example, if interest rates do rise again, which will depress house prices.