Landlords still selling off rentals on a large scale; First-time buyers profiting

Investors sold significantly more homes in the last quarter of 2024, according to data from the Land Registry. Many of these homes were taken over by households that already lived there. They paid a lot less for them than the average price for a home on the entire market in that period. First-time buyers benefited in particular.

In total, investors sold 20,150 homes in the months of October to December, compared to 12,375 a year earlier. Of these, 8,000 went to owner-occupiers. Most of these homes were sold by private investors, 5,275 in total. The rest were sold by business investors.

Households that bought a home from an investor paid an average of 383,000 euros for it at the end of last year. That amount is well below the average home price of 460,000 euros in that period. Of the homes that investors sold to owner-occupiers, 65 percent went to first-time buyers. They paid an average of 344,000 euros for this. According to the Land Registry, the lower amounts are partly because these transactions involved smaller homes or homes with a low energy label.

The government agency has seen the number of homes sold by investors increase since 2021. Various developments contribute to this. For example, the transfer tax increased, tenants started enjoying purchase protection, and rent regulation through the Affordable Rent Act took effect last year. The latter law imposes maximum rents in the middle segment, which is why many landlords decided to sell their properties.

The four largest Dutch cities in particular saw a strong increase in the last quarter of last year. Business investors sold more than twice as many homes in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague than in the same period in 2023. For private investors, this was 50 percent more. Rotterdam was the leader: over three times as many homes were sold here than a year earlier.