Housing in the Netherlands can be hard to come by, with bidding above the asking price becoming the norm. Buying a house in the Netherlands has become popular amongst investors, as they see the property market as an opportunity to make returns on their investments; as opposed to having their cash sit in a bank account accumulating little interest.

More than 1 in 10 properties in popular, major Dutch cities are bought by private investors who intend to put them back onto the market and offer them to those who want to rent a house. Properties that are cheap, and suitable for young families or starters are particularly favoured amongst investors.

Most popular Dutch cities

Investors buying a second property prefer to do so in cities with a large student or expat population, as they can then rent said properties out as student housing or accommodation for expats.

In the cities of Groningen, Amsterdam, Enschede, Amstelveen and The Hague, more than 1 out of 10 properties are bought by investors. Last year in Maastricht this ratio was higher still, with 1 in 5 properties being bought by an investor.

The market share of properties owned by private investors has risen quickly in Amstelveen and the student cities Groningen, Enschede and Maastricht, according to figures from the Dutch Association of Estate Agents (NVM) and Kadaster. The market share controlled by private investors in the Dutch housing market is the largest in these cities and is also increasing the quickest.

House or a savings account?

In the major cities buying a property is an appealing investment for private investors. But it is not only in the major cities that a second house is popular. In the Netherlands, an increasing number of houses are bought by investors who, alongside their own place of residence, own one or more properties.

The interest rate is currently low, and this makes the choice to buy a house a lucrative option, as opposed to putting the money aside in a Dutch bank account which does not gain a great deal of interest.

One in every 20 Dutch houses is owned by a private investor. To give you an idea of the increase occurring, in 2008, 7,1 percent of property buyers in the Netherlands owned one or more properties. This number increased to 11,2 percent last year.