Homeowners increasingly opting to renovate instead of move

Homeowners in the Netherlands are increasingly opting to renovate their homes to make them suitable for the future rather than moving to a different home. This applies to senior citizens in particular, NU.nl reports based on an analysis of mortgages by the financial service provider Van Bruggen.

According to Oscar Noorlag, a mortgage expert at Van Bruggen, there are two main reasons for this shift from moving to renovating: the housing shortage and increasing mortgage interest rates. That makes renovations more attractive than moving. “Renovation is the cheaper option,” Noorlag said to the newspaper.

So younger people are building extra rooms onto their homes to make space for growing families, and older residents are installing staircase lifts and other upgrades to make their homes future-proof. That has several advantages, beyond being more affordable. It means people can continue living in the same neighborhood, and their children can stay in the same schools, for example.

But it also impacts the housing market. “When people renovate, their home becomes more valuable, which means that the less expensive part of the market becomes smaller. That makes it more difficult to move,” Noorlag said. “What you actually want to see for the flow is that an expansive home is sold to someone whose own home becomes available again. Renovations do not result in a train of home sales.”

Van Bruggen thinks the government can stimulate the moving train by giving more priority to housing suitable for older residents. “We think that the government’s housing policy pays far too little attention to seniors,” Noorlag said. “They focus on affordable housing, but much less on suitable senior housing, while the ageing population will continue to grow much more in the coming two decades. You have to ensure that the supply of senior housing becomes much larger. Otherwise, those people will stay in their single-family home."