Dutch homes moving fast from gas: 11% fully electric, hybrids up from 1.5% to 3.7%
The Netherlands saw two major jumps in home-heating trends in 2024, with the share of fully natural-gas-free homes and the number of hybrid-heated homes rising sharply across the country, according to new data released Tuesday by the CBS.
CBS reported that 11.2 percent of homes were heated without natural gas in 2024, up from 8.7 percent in 2022, while 3.7 percent of all homes used hybrid systems, compared with 1.5 percent two years earlier.
Fully gas-free homes rely on heat pumps or district heating and do not use a boiler or block heating. Hybrid homes use an electric primary system, usually a heat pump, but still consume limited natural gas for backup heating, cooking, or hot water.
The rise is closely linked to national construction rules, CBS wrote. Since July 1, 2018, no building permits have been issued for new buildings with natural gas connections. As a result, homes built after 2015 account for much of the shift.
CBS found that in 2023, 36 percent of these newer homes were heated electrically — mostly with heat pumps but sometimes with air-conditioning units or infrared panels — and 33 percent were entirely gas-free. Another 3 percent of the post-2015 housing stock combined electric heating with some gas use, while 20 percent depended on district heating.
Older properties follow different patterns because warmtenet infrastructure and electrical upgrades are uneven across the country. Homes built before 2015 rely far more on district heating than electric systems, and many electrically heated homes built before 2006 still operate as hybrids.
The heating transition also varies by housing type. Apartments are far more likely to be connected to district heating, while detached homes are significantly more likely to be heated electrically. CBS noted that 12 percent of apartments had district heating in 2023, compared with 1 percent of detached homes, while nearly 13 percent of detached homes used full electric heating, compared with 5 percent of apartments.
District-heat networks remain concentrated around major cities, shaping the uneven national map. Purmerend, Almere, Duiven and Nieuwegein had the highest shares of homes connected to district heating in 2023, ranging from just over half to two-thirds of all households.
Significant concentrations also appeared in cities including Utrecht, Amsterdam, Delft, Leiden, Rotterdam, Helmond, Eindhoven, Arnhem and ’s-Gravenhage. Many municipalities elsewhere — among them Ameland, Tubbergen and parts of Noord-Brabant, Drenthe and Friesland — reported no district-heat connections at all.
