Remote work levels off in Netherlands; Real estate leads, followed by ICT and finance

Remote work in the Netherlands has plateaued, six years after the coronavirus pandemic accelerated home-based working, CBS reports.

In 2025, 80 percent of Dutch companies allowed employees to work remotely, roughly unchanged since 2022, while about 61 percent of workers in the Netherlands had the practical ability to work outside the office, CBS found. Remote work has sharply gained popularity since 2012, when only 22 percent of employees had this option.

In the Netherlands, companies in real estate rental and trade are the most likely to allow employees to work remotely, with 98 percent offering the option. ICT and financial services follow closely at 95 percent. By contrast, only 58 percent of hospitality businesses permit remote work, and just one in five employees in that sector can actually take advantage of it.

Smaller companies are less likely to offer remote work. CBS found that 76 percent of Dutch firms with 10 to 50 employees provide the option, compared with 96 percent of companies with more than 250 employees.

Large employers in the Netherlands have largely stopped reducing office space as hybrid work policies stabilize. A survey of 29 major office users last week—including municipalities, banks, and consulting firms—found that 20 of the 29 have no plans to downsize further.