Dutch cities can soon slap taxes on vacant homes; New worries for many Amsterdam renters

The law allowing municipalities to impose a tax on vacant homes will come into effect next week, Housing Minister Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan said Wednesday during a debate. “It was my first official signature on legislation,” she said.

A GroenLinks–PvdA amendment setting the rules for the tax was approved last year, but its implementation was postponed. The previous government said the delay was due to “procedural reasons,” without offering additional details.

Each municipality can choose whether to implement the tax and set its rate. However, it will be some time before the first charges are applied, since the law only applies to homes that have been empty for at least a year.

The policy may work towards alleviating the concerns among middle-income renters in Amsterdam who are increasingly squeezed. From 2023 to 2025, private-sector rents have continued to rise, while the number of rental units has fallen as landlords sell their properties. This has effectively stalled growth in the private rental market, according to the city’s biennial Living in Amsterdam report.

The report finds that 19 percent of Amsterdam households now have a middle income, compared with 14 percent in 2023. Many of them are forced to rent in the expensive private sector, spending a significant portion of their income on housing. Researchers note that 40 percent of homes in the high-rent segment are occupied by people whose incomes are insufficient for those costs.

Purchasing property in Amsterdam remains challenging for low- and middle-income households, despite an increase in the number of homes for sale. Many cannot secure a mortgage, meaning that most homes are snapped up by buyers with their own funds.

Between 2023 and 2025, the social rental housing stock grew by 1,600 units, bringing the total to 223,000, thanks to housing corporations expanding their portfolios. At the same time, rents have dropped slightly.

Apartment rentals on the higher end of the private market have jumped by 31 percent per month on average since 2015. Ten years ago, those residences were rented for around 1,450 euros monthly, compared to nearly 1,900 euros last year, the Amsterdam report showed.

Mid-market rental prices have jumped from about 850 euros in 2015 to around 1,100 euros on average a decade later. That reflects an increase of over 29 percent per month.