1,750 empty stores converted to homes last year

The retail vacancy rate fell sharply last year, likely due to many buildings being converted into homes, repots by the research agency Locatus showed. It is not the case that there is a "thriving retail sector" due to the consequences of the pandemic lockdown measures.

Vacancy fell from 7.5 percent at the beginning of 2021 to 6.8 percent at the end of the year. In absolute number, the number of vacant properties fell by more than 1,750 to around 14,500. Locatus called the decrease an "unprecedented number" in an explanation. According to the agency, it is not possible to find the new function the building has in many cases, "but in most cases, it appears to be a home."

The housing shortage in the Netherlands is great and house prices have risen enormously, which makes it attractive to convert vacant retail properties into homes if the municipality grants permission. "For a long time, the price of retail real estate in most places was much higher than the values of a house," Locatus said. "But the rising vacancy created an oversupply of retail real estate and prices for retail real estate have fallen in recent years."

Locatus observed that retail properties decreased the most in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants outside the shopping areas. Almost a quarter of vacant buildings there have been converted into residential buildings. "It is also logical that it happens in these places, in outside shopping areas, the value of a retail property is lower anyway and it is especially in large cities that there is the greatest need for housing," the research agency said.