Netherlands

The Dutch housing market in 2025 is marked by rising prices, record demand, and declining rental supply. About 30% of homes are rentals, while approximately 70% are owner-occupied. Of the rental market, around 30% of all Dutch homes are social housing, with big cities like Amsterdam reaching close to 50% social housing share. Social housing rents are capped (around 880 euros per month), targeted to lower-income households, and allocated by housing associations; these nonprofit organizations operate independently, without direct government subsidies. Public housing and social housing are essentially the same in the Netherlands, both referring to dwellings managed by these housing associations for people meeting income criteria.

The average price to buy an apartment nationwide in 2025 is approximately 488,000 euros, with median prices in major urban areas exceeding 500,000 euros. For rentals, private-sector rents average around 1,830 euros per month, translating to roughly 20-30 euros per square meter depending on location and property type. Social housing rents are structurally lower, with new caps and yearly adjustments. The shrinking availability of rental properties in the private sector—down over 35% year on year—has pushed prices up, especially in affordable segments. Government efforts focus on maintaining affordability and supply, but competition for housing remains strong throughout Dutch cities.

The Netherlands faces an acute housing crisis in 2025, marked by an ongoing shortage of homes, rapidly rising purchase and rental prices, and fierce competition for available properties. The national housing deficit currently stands at about 400,000 homes, and new housing construction remains too slow to close the gap. The average sales price for existing owner-occupied homes has risen to around 470,000 euros nationwide, with prices in Amsterdam already exceeding 630,000 euros. This growth is driven by strong demand, investor sell-offs, and limited new construction.

Rental market conditions are equally critical. Over the past year, the number of available private sector rentals dropped by over 35%, leaving fewer than 13,000 listings and causing average private rents to climb by nearly 10%, approaching 1,800 euros per month for new contracts. Prospective tenants increasingly find themselves competing for a shrinking pool of units, with only a quarter of rental applicants managing to secure a viewing, and required incomes for rentals now exceeding 5,300 euros gross per month—well above the national average wage.

The housing shortage and price surges affect a broad spectrum of the population, but especially first-time buyers, renters with middle or lower incomes, and young people—including students, who face soaring room rents in major cities. Vulnerable groups such as lower-income households and recent graduates are at the greatest risk of being priced out of both home ownership and rental markets.

The Dutch national government is addressing affordable and sustainable housing through new legislation, targeted construction programs, and regulatory changes. The main policy advance is the Housing Supply Steering Act, passed in July 2025 (pending Senate approval), which gives the national government stronger authority to enforce housing targets, override local zoning, and accelerate permitting processes. This act obliges municipalities and provinces to meet binding targets for affordable housing delivery and introduces faster legal procedures for designated projects to reduce bureaucratic delays.

Communicated national targets focus on building or renovating more than 900,000 new homes by 2030, with ongoing annual goals to boost supply. There is a priority on affordability and sustainability: municipalities are required to allocate a substantial share of new builds to affordable and sustainable segments, and new mortgage policies incentivize buyers to invest in energy-saving measures by granting higher borrowing limits for sustainable homes.

Concrete government activities include raising the National Mortgage Guarantee limit, increasing rent allowances, linking rent increases to inflation or wage growth, and capping rent hikes—4.1% for private rentals, 5% for social housing, and 7.7% for the mid-market segment. The government has also maintained investment in infrastructure and increased funding for housing corporations, which are tasked with accelerating new construction and acquiring more mid-rent dwellings.

Political uncertainty and coalition changes have slowed some reforms, but the current legislative and financial strategies show clear government intent to boost sustainable, affordable housing supply and regulate rental affordability.

Housing cooperatives—primarily nonprofit housing associations—play a central role in the Dutch rental sector, managing close to 27% of all housing units in 2024, a share that has been gradually declining as owner-occupied and private rental housing grow faster. These associations are responsible for nearly all social housing stock, focusing on affordable, long-term rentals for lower-income households. The number of social rental homes managed by cooperatives has seen minimal net growth in recent years; new construction barely outpaces losses due to demolition and sales.

Current dynamics are dominated by limited construction output, with annual new builds consistently below government targets. In 2023, only about 17,000 new social rental homes were delivered by cooperatives, far short of the ramp-up required to hit national housing goals. The shortage is exacerbated by rising construction and maintenance costs, administrative delays, and scarcity of suitable, affordable land.

To address this, the Dutch government has intensified national steering via legislation like the Housing Supply Steering Act and by revising national performance agreements, institutionalizing annual targets for new cooperative and social housing. Financial mechanisms have been improved to support associations lacking investment space. Additionally, municipalities are now required to reserve land for affordable housing and streamline planning processes, with strengthened cooperation between central, provincial, and local governments to accelerate social housing production. Direct national programs to support smaller-scale cooperative self-organisation outside the established associations remain limited.