Here’s something we never thought we’d write — we have some good housing news! Last year, fewer homes were bought up by investors in the Netherlands. Instead, more houses were bought by first-time buyers. 🏠
Regular people? Buying more houses?? Yep. According to the land registry, 2021 saw investors take a slightly less sizeable chunk of Dutch real estate. This left room for more first-time buyers to have their chance.
We can thank the transfer tax
And who is the knight in shining armour that we can thank for this behaviour change? Sir transfer tax.
In the Netherlands, when buying a house you must pay a sizeable chunk of transfer tax when the deed of the home is passed to you. This is usually 2% of the value of the home for regular folks.
However, in 2021, the Dutch government introduced a higher transfer tax for those who were not going to live in the home that they bought — cough, cough — investors. This tax was raised to 8% of the value of the home.
A hopeful drop
One year in, it looks like it’s working. According to the NOS, in 2020, big investors in the Netherlands bought up a whopping 88,000 houses. However, in 2021, this dropped to 55,000 — still a scary number, but it’s something.
While it’s fun to shake our fists at the big investors, the largest competitors for first-time buyers are actually the smaller investors. However, this group also bought fewer homes last year, acquiring 6,500 houses.
More first-time buyers, fewer investors
In spite of skyrocketing house prices in the past year, it was actually a relatively successful year for first-time buyers in the Netherlands. With more investors shoved out of the way, hopeful homeowners were able to score 80,000 homes in 2021.
The hope is that this trend will continue into 2022, the NOS reports. As of January 1, a new purchase protection was implemented. Under this, municipalities are allowed to decide whether buyers must live in the purchased home — another deterrent for investors.
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