Homeowners can expect to spend 3.5 percent more on housing costs next year

Homeowners with a multi-person household will spend an average of 30 euros more on municipal housing costs in 2023 than this year. According to homeowners association Vereniging Eigen Huis, which did a random check of 107 municipalities across the country, this amounts to an increase of 3.6 percent.

The housing costs consist of property tax (OZB), waste and sewage charges. Homeowners pay these charges annually to their municipality. Each municipality determines the level of the rates itself, which means that there are considerable differences between regions. The rates come from the municipalities' own statements. In the first quarter of next year, Vereniging Eigen Huis will publish the figures for all 344 municipalities.

The municipality in the sample that led the way with the sharpest increase is Bodegraven-Reeuwijk in Zuid-Holland. Homeowners in that municipality will spend an average of 140 euros more next year than in 2022. The Hague (an increase of 130 euros) and Altena (113 euros) followed in second and third. Of the more than one hundred municipalities studied, the total housing costs in Bodegraven-Reeuwijk, Montfoort in the province of Utrecht and the newly merged municipality of Voorne aan Zee in Zuid-Holland will be the highest overall next year.

In Doetinchem, Gelderland, the average cumulative housing cost estimate will actually be 83 euros lower.

According to the Vereniging Eigen Huis, the property tax in particular has significant outliers. In the neighboring municipalities of Medemblik and Drechterland in Noord-Holland, the property tax will rise by several dozen percentage points next year. However, these municipalities have indicated that the higher levy that residents have to pay to the municipality will be compensated by a reduction in water board charges. The OZB tax will also increase in 2023 in Bodegraven-Reeuwijk, The Hague, Utrecht and Den Bosch, among others.

In 25 of the 107 municipalities surveyed, the property tax will decrease next year. It will fall the most in Venlo, where homeowners will see their payments fall by an average of 46 euros. That amounts to a decrease of almost 12 percent.