Housing shortage: Netherlands had 396,000 too few homes last year; Very slight decrease

The Dutch housing shortage showed its first slight decrease after years of rising. In 2024, the Netherlands had 396,000 too few homes, a decrease of 5,000 (-0.1 percent) compared to the year before, NOS reports based on the annual calculation by ABF Research on behalf of the national government.

The housing shortage refers to the number of households and people who want to form households, but for whom no home is available. The decrease means that more homes were added to the stock than households increased last year. The housing shortage currently stands at 4.8 percent of the total housing stock.

The government is aiming for a shortage of 2 percent. According to the government, a 2 percent shortage is the right balance between preventing an overheated housing market, but also preventing it from collapsing because there is no movement. It would also prevent vacancy. To achieve the 2 percent target, the Netherlands now needs 226,000 more homes.

To address the housing shortage, the caretaker government still wants to build 100,000 homes per year, a target taken over from the previous government. So far, that target has never been achieved. Last year, around 82,000 homes were added to the housing stock through new construction and the conversion of existing buildings. So far this year, the number of housing construction permits issued has been significantly lower than the year before, not providing a good outlook for future construction.

ABF Research expects the housing shortage to continue slowly declining in the coming years, to 3.9 percent of the housing stock in 2031 and 2.2 percent in 2040.