Have you been thinking of buying a house in The Netherlands after your studies? Unless you are incredibly wealthy, you have the best chance in Groningen
Home seekers with an average income have fewer options on the housing market than a year ago. Yet people in the North have a relatively high chance of finding a house that costs less than 150,000 euros.
This is revealed by a study by De Hypotheker. Researchers assumed an average income of 32,700 euros: with that you can buy a house of 150,000 euros as a single earner.
Only four percent of the homes in The Netherlands have an asking price of 150,000 euros or lower, last year that was 7.5 percent. A fifth of the housing supply in the province of Groningen consists of houses with an asking price lower than 150,000 euros. However, that number in 2018 that was 29 percent. The supply for single-income households has fallen sharply, but compared to the rest of the country there are still many more options in Groningen.
The situation is most hopeless in the province of Utrecht: 98.8 percent of the houses are more expensive than 150,000 euros. In Flevoland, Limburg, Noord-Holland and Noord-Brabant around 2 percent are cheaper. At 19 percent, the supply in the province of Groningen is by far the largest. Zeeland (11 percent), Drenthe (10 percent) and Friesland (10 percent) follow.
The contrast between the province and the city of Groningen is great. The latest quarterly figures from the NVM (Dutch Association of Real Estate Agents) made it clear that the city is struggling with the tightest housing market in the Netherlands. For every seeker there are a total of 1.4 properties available. The national average is 3.1 available homes per buyer.
Commercial director of De Hypotheker Menno Luiten calls the situation on the housing market “distressing”. “There is really only one real solution and that is to build enough affordable homes.”
