Wealthy people buying up coastal homes as vacation properties, short-stay rentals

In the areas along the Dutch coast, many homes are bought up by people who live elsewhere. They use the houses as holiday homes for themselves or rent them out to holidaymakers. In the past ten years, the number of second homes increased even faster than the number of homes bought by first-time buyers. This emerged from an investigation carried out by the Land Registry on behalf of KNRO-NCRV's investigative journalistic platform Pointer. The Land Registry confirmed the conclusion upon request.

Schiermonnikoog heads the list. There, 9.4 percent of all houses are someone's second home. That comes down to about one in every eleven homes. Ameland follows with 7.9 percent and Tubbergen with 7.1 percent. This involves ordinary homes, not holiday homes in holiday parks.

Sluis in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen is another municipality in the national top. Until 2014, second homes were not allowed there. Now 5 percent are owned by someone living outside the municipality. In the village of Cadzand, which falls under the municipality of Sluis, this even concerns half of all homes.

The national top also includes a few larger cities like Groningen, where 3.8 percent of houses are someone's second home. In Amsterdam, it is 3.5 percent.

Pointer's investigation will be broadcast on NPO2 on Sunday evening.

The top 10 municipalities with the largest share of second homes:

1. Schiermonnikoog 9.4 percent
2. Ameland 7.9 percent
3. Tubbergen 7.1 percent
4. Noord-Beveland and Veere 5.8 percent
5. Dinkelland and Terschelling 5.3 percent
6. Staphorst 5.2 percent
7. Sluis 5 percent
8. Bergen (Noord-Holland) and Baarle Nassau 4.8 percent