Report: Asylum center placement has no effect on Dutch home sales

The arrival of an asylum center in a neighborhood has no affect on the prices of surrounding homes, nor the time they spend on the market. The number of burglaries also do not increase more than the national trend. This is according to research done by NU.nl. The news agency collected information of more than 4,300 homes in places where asylum centers were placed since the year 2000 and looked for variations between homes near and further away from the center. NU also researched burglary data from the police on postal code level since February last year. Excluding detached homes, the prices of homes surrounding an asylum center actually increased more than that of homes farther away, even becoming 100 euros per square meter more expensive, compared to homes further away. Including detached houses, homes surrounding a refugee center's prices fall about 90 euros per square meter. NU attributes this to the fact that detach house prices can vary enormously either way. Over the past years, home values decreased by about 400 euros per square meter. The values of houses near asylum centers decreased less sharply than houses that are not close to a refugee center. The arrival of an asylum center also has very little effect on the burglary figures. NU compared the burglary figures of 15 places before and after the asylum center was opened and compared the outcome with national figures and figures from nearby neighborhoods without asylum centers. In four places the number of burglaries increased more than the national trend after the asylum center arrived. In four other place, the number of burglaries decreased after the arrival of the asylum center. All and all the number of burglaries decreased with 0.1 percent compared to national figures and those from surrounding areas.