The struggle to buy a house in the Netherlands continues. Record-high house prices have led to an increase in average mortgage amounts, and to make things even more difficult, overbidding has been taking place more often too. More than 60 percent of Dutch houses are sold for above the asking price.
An analysis of the Dutch housing market by Huispedia has revealed that more houses were sold for more than their asking prices during the second quarter of 2024. 66 percent of bids on houses for sale were higher than the asking price. This is an 8-percentage-point increase in overbidding compared to the first quarter of the year.
Not only is overbidding happening more frequently, but people buying a house in the Netherlands are also giving higher bids. In Q2, homebuyers bid an average of 4,1 percent above the asking price for properties, while in Q1, the average bid was only 2,6 percent higher than the asking price.
There are certain situations that determine whether overbidding is more likely, mainly the energy efficiency of the house, the city where the property is located and the price of the house. For example, homes with high energy-efficiency ratings are more popular and overbidding is more likely for these properties.
According to Huispedia, the Dutch cities where overbidding took place the most were Utrecht and Amsterdam. On average, Utrecht homebuyers overbid by 11,2 percent, while those in Amsterdam offered 9,3 percent more when purchasing a home.
When house prices were below one million euros, overbidding was also more likely to take place. In fact, the only time that bids were the exact asking price or below was when the property was sold for at least one million euros.
De Hypotheker, a Dutch mortgage advisor, has reported that the average mortgage to purchase a home was 346.386 euros in the second quarter of this year. This is a 10 percent increase from last year and a new all-time high. However, overbidding will leave potential buyers to cover the difference between the mortgage amount and the selling price of the property.
Even with higher house prices, more people applied for home loans in Q2. The total number of mortgage applications rose by 13 percent, with almost 70 percent of them for the purchase of a house.
Half of all mortgage applications to buy a home were by homebuyers aged 35 years and younger - a 15 percent increase from the same period last year. This could be attributed to the scheme helping first-time buyers that was launched by the government. There was also a significant increase of 17 percent in the number of mortgage applications from the 45 to 55 years age group.