First-timers buying more homes, fewer moving up to bigger homes

First-time buyers in the Dutch housing market also bought a home more often in the past quarter than a year earlier. The four large cities were particularly popular among first-timers, who benefited from their increased wages and could, therefore, afford the more expensive mortgages. Fewer people moved up from one owner-occupied home to another. According to the Land Registry, the number of transactions fell across the board for the 11th quarter in a row.

Increased mortgage interest rates and general inflation made it more difficult for buyers to purchase a home last year, which also caused prices to fall. Prices are now rising again. The Land Registry expects that the market will continue to improve in 2024, after the decline in the number of transactions at the end of last year also remained limited at a minus of 1.6 percent.

For the fifth quarter in a row, first-time buyers bought a home more often in the past three months than a year earlier. Unlike existing homeowners, this group usually benefits financially when purchasing a new home. Despite the more expensive mortgages, the monthly costs of an owner-occupied home are often lower than those of a rental property.

First-time buyers often opted for a home in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. Sixty percent of sales were made by first-time buyers, compared to 47 percent in the other large cities and 37 percent in the rest of the Netherlands. First-time buyers were given more options in the cities because investors are now selling homes more often than buying them.

Given the mortgage interest rates, people moving up opted to stay where they were. That was reflected in more than 8 percent fewer transactions in this group than a year earlier.