Housing construction projects taking longer and longer to complete
Housing construction projects are taking longer and longer to complete after the permit has been issued, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. It now takes almost two years to complete the average home, compared to almost 1.5 years a decade ago. Construction is especially taking longer in urban areas.
Of the new homes completed in the first three quarters of 2025, half had their first permit issued less than 23 months ago. The fastest quarter of homes was completed less than 16 months after the first permit was issued, and the slowest quarter took over 35 months.
In 2015, half of the newly constructed homes were delivered within 16 months of the first permit. Three-quarters were completed within 25 months. Other types of buildings, like schools, offices, and shops, are also taking longer to build than ten years ago: 20 months, compared to 15 months.
The construction process is slowest in Noord-Holland, where it takes an average of 26 months to complete a home. Zuid-Holland and Utrecht followed at 22 and 21.5 months, respectively. Overijssel was the fastest this year, with an average of 15 months to complete a home.
Building homes takes especially long in urban areas. “This is partly because more large apartment complexes are built in urban areas,” CBS said. “However, single-family homes also take longer to build in highly urbanized municipalities.”
In cities, it takes an average of 28.6 months to complete an apartment building and 19.6 months to complete a single-family home. In non-urban areas, this is 19.9 and 15.2 months, respectively.
