Mystery: how many empty shops are there really in the city?

Lights out, shutters closed, not a single person in sight: on January 1 of this year, more than 219,000 homes, offices and shops were vacant in the Netherlands. Buildings in the municipality of Zoetermeer were also gathering dust.

Walk around the Stadshart or the Dorpsstraat and you will see a number of vacant buildings. On 1 January 2022, a total of 2 percent of the buildings in the municipality of Zoetermeer were empty.

Vacancy in Zoetermeer

Keep in mind: this percentage applies to all types of buildings. So homes, shops, offices and so on. In Zoetermeer, relatively speaking, most office buildings are empty. That is 19 percent of all office buildings in Zoetermeer. The percentage of vacant retail properties in our city is 12 percent.

National figures

Nationally, the number of vacant properties on 1 January 2022 was lower than last year. A total of 219,000 buildings could fulfill a new function, compared to 230,000 in the previous year. Many offices in particular could still be furnished!

Text continues under the map of the relative number of vacant properties per municipality >

When is a property vacant?

A building is officially empty if no person is registered here according to the Personal Records Database (BRP), if there is no user according to the Property Valuation (WOZ) and if no company is registered in the Trade Register. If houses are empty, this does not necessarily mean that no one will live in the houses.

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