Young home buyers will find it easier to find a new home in the first part of this year. The number of mortgage applications among home buyers up to the age of 35 has increased by 17 percent in the first five months compared to the last five months of last year, figures from broker De Hypotheker show on Thursday. The organization sees “a clear turnaround” compared to previous periods, when the number of applications among young home buyers invariably decreased.
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The increase among young buyers in the first part of this year is particularly noticeable in Flevoland (an increase of 31 percent), Noord-Brabant (28 percent) and Zeeland (21 percent). Viewed across all age groups, the number of mortgage applications for home buyers increased by 9.5 percent. According to the mortgage broker, the figures indicate that the housing market is “slowly starting to cool down”.
Last month it already appeared that the average house price fell slightly in the first quarter of this year. Figures from estate agents’ association NVM showed that a home costs an average of 428,000 euros, which is 2 percent less than at the end of 2021.
At the same time, the mortgage interest rate increased by the same percentage during that period, so that home seekers can borrow less and therefore offer less on a home. De Hypotheker states that the percentage that potential buyers outbid has decreased for the first time in a long time.
Housing policy cabinet
The cabinet wants to alleviate the crisis in the housing market by building considerably more. The goal is 100,000 new homes per year, while that number has been around 70,000 in recent years. The cabinet is also abolishing the ‘jubelton’: with it, parents can give their children 100,000 euros tax-free until this year, which they have to invest in a new house.
The Land Registry recently established that first-time buyers bought more homes in 2021 than the year before. The main cause, according to the researchers, was the abolition of the transfer tax for home buyers under the age of 35; they no longer have to pay 2 percent of the purchase price. For investors, the transfer tax has been increased to 8 percent. That also seemed to have an effect: the number of homes purchased by investors fell from 88,000 to 51,000 in 2021.