Netherlands

The Netherlands faces a significant housing shortage, with prices and rents rising sharply due to persistent undersupply and strong demand. In 2025, about 34 percent of households rent their homes, while 66 percent own their homes. The median price per square meter to buy an apartment is around 4,700 euros, while the median rent for an apartment is about 20.77 euros per square meter per month.

Publicly owned housing, often referred to as social housing, plays a major role in the Dutch market. Social housing makes up about 34 percent of the total housing stock, the highest share in Europe. Social housing is specifically for lower-income groups, with rent capped and strict eligibility rules based on income. Public housing is generally synonymous with social housing in the Netherlands, but there is also a middle sector for moderate incomes and a free sector for market rents without caps. The government aims to increase new housing construction, but supply remains tight, especially for affordable and owner-occupied homes.

The Netherlands faces a severe housing crisis characterized by a shortage of approximately 400,000 homes in 2025—about 4.8% of the total housing stock. New home construction lags well behind the government’s targets, with 70,000 to 75,000 units completed annually, far short of the goal of 100,000 homes per year. Urban areas experience the most acute shortages and record extremely low vacancy rates around 1.5% or even less, showing that available dwellings are rapidly occupied and hard to find.

House prices and rents continue to rise quickly, with house prices increasing by 7.8% to almost 10% year-on-year in 2025. The average sales price for an existing home reached nearly 470,000 euros, rising to over 630,000 euros in Amsterdam. For new homes, the average price is now close to 495,000 euros. Average private-sector rents have also surged, with rates in major cities exceeding 20 euros per square meter per month.

The housing crisis affects a wide cross-section of the population. First-time buyers and middle-income households are especially disadvantaged—they earn too much to qualify for social housing but cannot afford high home prices or free-market rents. Long waiting times for social housing put low-income households under continued stress, while tightened supply in the private rental sector worsens conditions for renters. Recent investor sell-offs of rental properties have further reduced the stock of affordable rentals, intensifying competition for both rental and owner-occupied homes.

The Dutch national government has set a target to build 100,000 new homes per year, with two-thirds of these to be affordable for low- and middle-income households, and plans to reach 900,000 new homes by 2030. The national strategy emphasizes both speeding up housing construction and making homes more sustainable. Recent measures include streamlining building regulations to reduce construction costs and delays, such as lowering minimum ceiling and door heights, relaxing rules on stair steepness and sound insulation, and simplifying ventilation and daylight requirements. Financial incentives and partnerships aim to support faster permitting and encourage municipalities to facilitate affordable housing projects.

Key sustainability efforts include energy efficiency upgrades, with programs for wide-scale home insulation and collective solar panel installations focused on reducing housing costs for low- and middle-income renters. In 2025, the government also proposed a two-year rent freeze in the social housing sector to protect tenants from rising costs, though housing associations warn this could reduce new construction and retrofit investments. Support for private and non-market rental supply is being strengthened by targeted subsidies, adjusted tax policies (such as reduced property transfer tax for certain purchases), and coordinated roles for housing associations, municipalities, and private developers.

Dutch (Nederlands): De rijksoverheid streeft naar 100.000 nieuwe woningen per jaar; twee derde hiervan moet betaalbaar zijn voor lage en middeninkomens. De bouw wordt versneld via het versoepelen van bouwregels, financiële stimulansen en samenwerking met gemeenten. Duurzaamheid krijgt prioriteit, met grootschalige isolatie- en zonnepanelenprogramma’s voor huurwoningen. Een tijdelijke huurbevriezing en fiscale aanpassingen ondersteunen de betaalbaarheid.

Housing cooperatives (woningcorporaties) in the Netherlands are key non-profit institutions managing and developing a significant share of the rental housing stock, primarily for low- and middle-income groups. In the first half of 2025, housing cooperatives were responsible for about 29 percent of all new housing delivered, showing an increase from previous years and the highest share since tracking began in 2020. This means roughly 9,100 new cooperative rental homes were built out of nearly 31,600 new dwellings nationwide in this period.

Overall, cooperatives own around 34 percent of the rental housing market, focusing on affordable housing, but their share of total new construction varies widely per region, being higher in large cities. National policy aims to accelerate building through updated financial incentives, streamlined project support, and sharper collaboration between national, provincial, and municipal authorities. The government’s targets call for 900,000 new homes by 2030, with a substantial proportion under housing cooperative management.

Recent national measures include increased financial support for cooperative construction, regulatory reforms to lower building costs, and strong performance-based funding. New legislation also strengthens municipal planning obligations, encouraging both transformation of existing buildings and new builds by cooperatives, alongside support for housing the elderly and vulnerable groups. Despite these efforts, supply continues to lag behind strong demand, keeping housing cooperatives at the center of Dutch housing policy.