Mid-market rental supply quickly drying up; Only 8 listed in Amsterdam, 0 in Lelystad
Mid-market rental supply quickly drying up; Only 8 listed in Amsterdam, 0 in Lelystad
The supply of mid-range rental homes is quickly drying up, also outside the Randststad. There are currently only 8 mid-segment rentals available in Amsterdam. Almere has two. Lelystad and Middleburg do not have a single home listed for rent between 900 and 1,158 euros, the Telegraaf reported after scouring rental sites like Pararius and Funda.
According to real estate agents, most landlords in this segment are selling their rentals as soon as the current tenant moves out. Since the Affordable Rent Act was implemented in July, rents in the mid-segment have been regulated to between 900 and 1,185 euros per month. That often barely or does not cover the sharply increased taxes and other costs, realtors say.
“The tax alone is quickly 800 euros per month, and then you still have maintenance, interest charges, and the like,” Pieter van der Meyde, a rental agent in Amsterdam, told the Telegraaf.
Mid-range rentals are quickly disappearing in Limburg too, said Stefan Stijns of the real estate chain Boek & Offermans. “For the smaller landlord, it is usually no longer profitable,” he said. “There is really a chronic shortage in the price segment up to 1,500 euros. If you add something new to the market, your phone will be ringing off the hook.”
Joshua Holsnijders of Verra Makelaars in The Hague told the newspaper that they rented out only four mid-segment homes last year. “That is only 1 percent of all the rental homes we did. In The Hague, you could live for rent between 1,000 and 1,500 euros. Since the mid-rent law, that segment has almost disappeared. The rental market now actually starts at 1,700 euros, apart from social housing.”
The homes that are still available for rent in the mid-segment rarely appear online on the market. “Landlords don’t want to answer 400 responses to a home. That has been mandatory since the new Good Landlordship Act. Then you are more likely to rent to someone you know,” Holsnijders said. Real estate agents in the Amsterdam region and Limburg said the same thing.
