It has become more difficult for home seekers to find rental accommodation in the private sector in the past two years. Investors are increasingly choosing to sell their homes, which is reducing the number of private rental properties.
In the past two years, the private rental sector shrank by approximately the size of the municipality of Roosendaal. This mainly concerns smaller homes with a low energy label, the vast majority of which went to private individuals who will also live there themselves. This is evident from the data provided by the Land Registry
From 2015 to 2020, in which investors fully invested in the housing market due to low interest rates and tax incentives, a sales wave of private rental properties started in 2023.
Stricter rental legislation came into force, introduced by then minister Hugo de Jonge (CDA, Public Housing) to combat excesses on the rental market and regulate more rental properties. Some investors who previously rented out their rental properties in the private sector were now confronted with a rental ceiling. In addition, landlords are also becoming more burdensome about the real estate they own in box 3, and the transfer tax for investors has also increased.
Sales started shortly after the Affordable Rent Act came into effect in 2024, and are still continuing.
Flexible shell
The private rental sector is regarded as the ‘traffic island’ of the housing market. Private landlords generally charge more rent, but you do not have to be on a waiting list, as is usually the case with a housing association. Due to the rapid availability, tenants who are urgently looking for a home can often stay for a longer or shorter period of time.
Although private investors have sold a lot in recent years, the total number of private rental properties in the market has remained fairly stable, according to the Land Registry. This is partly because smaller investors sold to larger investors, but also because larger investors built new homes themselves. But since this year, this has no longer been able to compensate for the number of sales, meaning that the net number of homes owned by investors has now declined for two quarters in a row.
For example, investors have an increasingly smaller share in the total housing market; In addition to owner-occupied homes (about 4.7 million) and association homes (2.3 million), there are another 935,000 homes owned by investors – including people who have a second home.
Sales surge
The Land Registry sees that smaller private landlords (between three and nine homes) in particular are leaving the market, especially in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam and The Hague. There, smaller homes in expensive locations, with a high real estate value, have been subject to rental price regulation since 2024; With each new contract, the maximum rent is determined under the housing valuation system – up to 186 points or 1,185 euros per month.
According to investors, this affects their returns to such an extent that further renting no longer makes sense. As soon as a rental contract expires, they have to choose: renovate or make the rental home more sustainable so that it scores more than 186 points in the housing valuation system and falls into the private sector – where the rent usually skyrockets to recoup the investment. The alternative is to sell the house.
Many landlords in the four major cities opted to sell. The number of homes owned by private investors has fallen most sharply in those cities in recent years. On October 1, private investors owned 78,400 homes, a decrease of almost 14 percent compared to two years earlier.
According to rental agent Pieter van der Meyde, owner of Amstelland Makelaars, the private sector is increasingly losing its function as a flexible shell. “In the cities you are left with only two types of tenants: those who get a housing association home via Woningnet or the waiting list, and the group that does not. Because they have not built up a waiting period, earn too much or because they do not receive an emergency declaration.”
According to him, many of those people would like to rent from a private individual, but cannot simply pay 2,000 to 2,500 euros per month for a rental property in the private sector. “Think of people who are going through a divorce, expats who have just got a job, young couples who are moving in together for the first time – or older people who want to live in a smaller home. There is less and less available for them, they are getting the short end of the stick.”
Also read
Is it actually still fun to be a landlord? ‘Have courage, persevere’, is heard at the real estate conference
Van der Meyde, who sits on the board of the Amsterdam trade association VVA, would like to see the location of a home count more heavily in a revision of the rental laws. “In this way you can make it interesting for investors to continue renting out, instead of selling. And that is necessary, because there remains a great need for the private rental properties in the middle segment, which are now all being sold.”
While the sales wave means a miserable search for some, it is good news for others. First-time buyers on the housing market actually benefited: according to the Land Registry, two out of three investor homes sold went to a first-time buyer, who paid an average of 349,000 euros for them. And that is a lot less than the 423,000 euros that first-time buyers paid for a private home last quarter.
NEW: Give this item as a gift
As an NRC subscriber you can subscribe every month 10 items give as a gift to someone without an NRC subscription. The recipient can read the article directly, without a paywall.
Why you can trust NRC