Affordable homes scarce in the Netherlands; First-time buyers scooping up 60% of them
Affordable housing is hard to find in the Netherlands, third-quarter figures published by the Land Registry on Thursday show. In two-thirds of Dutch municipalities, less than half of homes sold fall in the “affordable” category. In the third quarter, over 60 percent of affordable homes were bought by first-time buyers.
In 2024, a house in the Netherlands is considered affordable if the price is below 390,000 euros. The government sets this limit annually based on the consumer price index. In practice, you need to earn over twice the average income to be able to afford an affordable home, Lianne Hans, a housing market researcher at the Land Registry, told NU.nl. “Suppose the mortgage interest rate is 4 percent, then a household has to earn almost 85,000 euros per year if you want to pay for the house with just your mortgage.”
Of the homes sold in the third quarter, less than half were “affordable” in almost 200 of the 342 Dutch municipalities. Twelve municipalities had less than 10 percent affordable homes. In ten municipalities, over 80 percent were affordable. Of the affordable homes sold in the third quarter, 61.5 percent were bought by first-time buyers.
On average, homes sold for 463,000 euros in the third quarter, 10.9 percent more than the same quarter last year. The number of home sales increased by 13 percent.
The four large cities saw a significant increase in home sales in the third quarter. 24 percent more homes sold in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht than a year earlier. The increase was greatest in Rotterdam at +35 percent. The other three cities’ transactions increased by over 20 percent.
The four large cities also saw a big price increase. Home prices in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht increased by 13 percent to an average of 542,000 euros. Amsterdam saw the biggest increase at +16.7 percent to 658,000 euros. Rotterdam is the cheapest big city to buy a home in with an average price of 425,000 euros - still well above the affordable limit.
In the third quarter, the average home price was above 550,000 euros in 57 Dutch municipalities - the highest number yet. In 198 municipalities, the average home price was below the national average of 463,000 euros.
The Land Registry expects that home prices will rise less rapidly than in recent years, but that is really difficult to predict, housing market expert Paul de Vries told NU.nl. The Netherlands is dealing with “a very strange, very tight market,” making predictions and expectations extra challenging. “Everything you can say about the coming period is actually based on what we already know [from the past]. And what is happening now is something we have never seen before.”
