The disposable income of Dutch households increased by 2.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, mainly thanks to an increase in jobs and hours worked, Statistics Netherlands reported on Monday.
Adjusted for price increases, Dutch workers received 1.8 percent more salary in the first quarter than in the same quarter last year. The number of employee jobs increased by 2.5 percent and the number of hours worked increased by 1.6 percent.
Over the past decades free sector rental homes have been too much of a "neglected child" in the Dutch housing market policy, Klaas Knot, president of Dutch central bank DNB, said in a speech on Monday. He called for more attention to be paid to this part of the housing market, ANP reports.
Dozens of new laws, rules, and regulations went into effect in the Netherlands at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday. Among them, a cut to the 30-percent ruling, new income tax credits, mortgage caps, a sales tax increase, expanded childcare subsides, and more rights for cities to seize homes related to the illegal drugs trade.
The Dutch government is implementing a number of law changes on January 1st. Below find a summary of changes made in the category Housing and Living Environment.
Home rents will increase by no more than 4.1 percent to 5.6 percent from July 1st next year. More information can be found here.
Tens of thousands of Rabobank customers were met with a nasty shock on Saturday. Their savings mortgage payments were deducted twice. This happened due to human error and the amounts have since been refunded, a spokesperson for the bank said to NOS.
This concerned customers with a so-called build-up mortgage. The mistake resulted in many Rabobank customers starting the expensive December in the red, they complained on social media.
ABN Amro expects that home prices in the Netherlands will increase by an average of 8.5 percent this year and 7 percent next year, instead of the bank's previous predictions of 8 and 5 percent respectively. According to the bank, interest rates will remain low for the time being, resulting in housing prices increasing faster than previously expected, ANP reports.
Around 30 thousand ING and Volksbank clients are getting money back from their bank. These involve homeowners who paid too much on their mortgage between 2011 and 2016 or who had their interest adjusted, and therefore had to pay a too high penalty interest, RTL Nieuws reports.
The banks calculated a penalty interest on the adjustment due to lost interest income. But complaints revealed that the calculation of the penalty interest was always in the favor of the bank. Banks are allowed to impose a penalty interest, but it may not exceed the actual damage that they suffer.
With the new year starting, the Dutch government is implementing a number of new laws and changing some existing ones. Below is an explanation of changes to the law applying to housing and living environment.
In 2018 prospective homeowners can take out a mortgage up to 100 percent of the value of their home. Home buyers can no longer borrow more than the house is worth. Other costs like advice, notary or valuation costs can no longer be co-financed from the mortgage. In 2017, home owners could loan up to 101 percent of their home's value.
A marathon debate akin to the American style filibuster is starting in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, on Tuesday. Parliamentarians asked for over 36 hours of talk time to debate the abolition of the so-called Hillen law - a law that gives tax credit to mortgages that have been repaid or almost repaid. The idea behind this marathon debate is to stall the abolition of this law, RTL Nieuws reports.
The PVV requested 1,200 minutes of speaking time, 50Plus wants 900 minutes. Other parties requested no more than 30 minutes.
The average mortgage loan amount in the Netherlands reached an all time high at 287 thousand euros in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 2 percent compared to the second quarter, according to figures from IG&H Consulting & Interim. The increasing housing prices makes it more difficult for first time buyers to enter the housing market - the number of mortgage applications from this group decreased by 7 percent, despite an overall increase in the number of mortgages taken out, NU.nl reports.
The interest rate in the Netherlands for a mortgage with a fixed term period of 30 years dropped below the 3 percent mark for the first time, the Hypotheekshop announced on Tuesday. On average, the interest rate for a 30 years fixed interest mortgage is now 2.99 percent, the Telegraaf reports.
That means that the average 30-year rate is now at the same level as the 5-year rate was in 2014, and as the 10 to 20-year rate was in 2015.
Banks treat their customers with a mortgage "too often as a cash cow", Bart Combee, director of Dutch consumers assocation Consumentenbond said on Tuesday. A study by the association showed that banks often charge higher than necessary costs for adjustments to mortgages, ANP reports.
An increasing number of Dutch homes are being bought without a mortgage, according to the Land Registry. Last year almost a third of the apartments sold in the Netherlands were bought in cash, NOS reports.
In the large Dutch cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, about 25 percent of houses were bought without a mortgage. In student cities like Delft, Groningen and Maastricht, 30 percent were bought in cash. Last year mortgage-free buyers spent 8.6 billion euros on homes, 16 percent of the total money spent on mortgages. In 2011 it was 4 billion euros.
ABN Amro found a total of 114 employees guilty of falsifying signatures on mortgage advices. Most of them were reprimanded and a number were dismissed, including some managers, ANP reports. The bank did not release exact numbers, but according to Financieele Dagblad, around 10 people lost their jobs.
Home buyers with a mortgage that has a longer fixed interest rate period are often misled by the so-called moving scheme, according to the own home association VEH. New buyers who sign a mortgage with National Mortgage Guarantee and an interest rate period of 20 or 30 years, get duped when the move to a home that is not eligible for the National Mortgage Guarantee, the VEH said on Tuesday, NU.nl reports.
The association examined the moving conditions of 35 mortgage providers and concluded that clients of ING, bijBouwe, Allianz and Hypotrust Goede Start all fall into this trap.
The number of house sales across the Netherlands will continue to increase this year, but is expected to start a decline in 2018, according to ABN Amro economists in their new Housing Market Monitor, the Telegraaf reports.
The economists expect that 5 percent more homes will change ownership this year than in 2016. Last year 20 percent more homes were sold than in 2015. But in 2018 the number of sold homes will decrease, according to the economists. And the price increases will become more moderate.
ABN Amro suspended nine employees suspected of forgery on mortage files, the Financieele Dagblad reports. According to the newspaper, the employees are suspected copying signatures of customers onto modified mortgage advice in order to close the file. This was done without the customers' consent.
ABN Amro's webcam service for mortgage advice is becoming more and more popular. According to the bank, 25 percent of all it mortgage consultations are now done over the webcam
Crowdfunded mortgage startup Jungo got the green light from the Dutch authority for financial markets AFM, both AFM and a spokesperson for Jungo told NU.nl. According to the founders, Jungo is the first company in the Netherlands to provide mortgages of which part is funded by private investors.
About 30 percent of young starters are unfairly denied a mortgage, according to mortgage expert Hypotheekshop's own research
Renting out rooms to tourists through Airbnb can at least partly be blamed for the skyrocketing housing prices in Amsterdam and the increasing gap between rich and poor in the city, according to a study done by ING's Economic Bureau
The number of people defaulting on their mortgages showed a "substantial" decline over the past six months. The group that is more than 120 days behind on their payments shrank with 2,215 to 110,466 people, according to figures credit registration office BKR released on Thursday
Credit raiting agency Moody's believes that home prices in the Netherlands will shoot up 5 percent this year, according to a report published on Wednesday. The agency attributes the price increase to both the recovering economy and a shortage in housing supply in certain parts of the market.
Low mortgage rates are one of the main drivers of the rapidly growing Amsterdam real estate market, said Ger Hukker, chairman of the real estate brokers’ association NVM in the Netherlands. He also believes that the lower price tag, compared to other capitals like London and Paris, is a big draw for expats.
