Total mortgage debt from households Netherlands 1995-2018

Dutch households had nearly 715 billion euros of outstanding mortgage loans at the end of 2018, a significant value when compared to earlier years. Despite its relatively small population size, the Netherlands had a much higher mortgage debt than most other European countries and was not far from those found in the United Kingdom, France or Germany. This has a political background as the Dutch government for many years wanted to help people to buy a house. The tax system allowed homeowners to deduct interests paid on mortgage from pre-tax income for a maximum period of thirty years. This was known as hypotheekrenteaftrek, and consequently lead to the Netherlands becoming the European country with the highest share of the population who is an owner-occupier with a mortgage. Since 2014, the Dutch government is slowly scaling this tax facility down, with an acceleration planned from 2020 onwards.

What are the biggest companies in the Dutch mortgage market?

Banks ABN AMRO, Rabobank and ING provided more than half of mortgages in the Netherlands in 2019. Another 11 percent of the market was provided by banks outside the traditional top three. Note that these are combined numbers, as there are no market shares that look at mortgage providers individually. Banks, insurance companies, regiepartijen (funds that originate mortgage loans on behalf of institutional investors, no English word exists for this term) and other providers do not have to share this information openly.

Housing in the Netherlands and the risk of water

As many people in the Netherlands both own a house and have a mortgage as well, a big theme is the risk of a house going underwater or negative home equity. This occurs when people effectively pay more for their mortgage than their house is worth and happened, for example, between 2009 and 2013, when the average valuation of a house outweighed the average selling price. For this risk alone, one can find much data on residential property in the Netherlands. For example, quarterly pulse monitors state that housing prices in the Netherlands are set to increase but decelerate in 2020.