Private sector rents continue to rise as supply falls

The average rental price for a private sector home rose further in the first quarter of 2024, reports housing platform Pararius. According to the platform, the increase is due to the strong demand for rental properties, while the supply is becoming increasingly scarce as more and more rental properties go up for sale.

In the first three months of the year, the average square meter price for a private sector rental home rose to 18.30 euros. That is an increase of 8.6 percent compared to the same quarter in 2023. In the last months of 2023, the national square meter price exceeded 18 euros for the first time.

In the first quarter, 17,594 homes became available for new tenants throughout the Netherlands. That is almost 28 percent less than a year earlier and 38.5 percent less than the first quarter of 2022. The share of the purchase supply coming from the rental market rose to 7 percent in the first quarter.

“We see that homes are increasingly being transferred from the private rental sector to the owner-occupied market,” said Jasper de Groot, director of Pararius. According to him, this development limits the options for those who fall outside the purchasing market. De Groot says the political policy that focuses on increasing the housing supply and reducing rents is missing its target. “Rents in the private sector continue to rise, which is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve.”