For the average first-time buyer, only 3.4 percent of owner-occupied homes in the Netherlands are affordable, despite a price drop of 6.4 percent in 2022. Calcasa calculated that in a report published Thursday. Those who move further to areas at the national borders have a considerably better chance of buying a house; in Amsterdam, 0.3 percent of homes are affordable, while in Pekela in Groningen and Kerkrade in Limburg, for example, this concerns almost a third of the housing stock.
With an average gross annual salary of 45,000 euros, single-income earners between the ages of 25 and 35 can get a mortgage of around 200,000 euros. That is less than half the value of the average owner-occupied home. Starting couples will earn more than 76,000 euros in 2023, with which they can pay for four out of ten, or 1.7 million houses.
Read also Turnaround in the housing market? Starter Danique didn’t notice much of that yet
One-earning recipients of the ‘jubelton’, a tax-free donation of just over 100,000 euros that is usually given by parents, can afford a million homes in the Netherlands. This exemption was reduced this year and will be completely abolished next year. In this way, the cabinet wants to make the chance of a house for housing market newcomers more equal.
There is talk of a ‘turnaround’ in the housing market after prices that have only risen for years, but with the current price level, starters continue to get the short end of the stick. A further fall in house prices could make a difference for more first-time buyers, says Calcasa. If prices fall by another 5 percent, 4.6 percent of homes will become accessible to first-time buyers. A decrease of 10 percent is more than 6 percent.