Official WOZ home valuations will rise up to 4.5% in 2025, assessors office says

Official home appraisal valuations will rise between 2.5 percent and 4.5 percent in 2025 compared to this year, said the Netherlands Council for Real Estate Assessment. The organization, known domestically as the Waarderingskamer, released its predictions about WOZ home valuations on Tuesday morning.

The organization reviews whether municipalities are properly implementing the WOZ Act. Municipalities annually appraise the value of immovable property, and calculate the WOZ. Municipalities use that amount to determine property tax and other fees and taxes owed, such as sewerage charges that homeowners must pay.

In 2025, every home owner will receive a WOZ value based on sales prices around the valuation reference date of January 1, 2024. This year, the WOZ value of homes only increased by 2.8 percent on average. That is also one of the reasons why far fewer people have filed objections to the WOZ value. Compared to 2023, the number of objections submitted was down by nearly half.

An exceptional number of WOZ objections were submitted in 2023. This increase was mainly caused by the strong average increase of 17 percent in the WOZ value. The rise in the number of commercial objection bureaus also played a role. However, since the start of the year, these objection bureaus have been obligated to charge lower legal costs, which makes their businesses less profitable.

Thanks to improved work processes and new technologies, municipalities were able to handle a lot more objections last year, according to the Netherlands Council for Real Estate Assessment. Yet, not everybody received the ruling results in time, leading to some homeowners having the decision regarding their objection that they submitted in 2023 answered a year later in 2024. The Netherlands Council for Real Estate Assessment shared that they believe the municipalities will again need a lot of time to judge and handle the objections this year.

According to the Netherlands Council for Real Estate Assessment, work is ongoing to further improve and increase transparency to increase confidence in the WOZ process. The council will also put extra work into the WOZ worth of buildings that are not homes, like offices and agricultural objects.