Average price of single-family homes in the Netherlands 2020, by province

What is the average price of residential property in the Netherlands? In the second quarter of 2020, a single-family home cost approximately 360,000 euros. There were large differences between the Dutch provinces, however. Single-family homes were most expensive in the central province of Utrecht with an average price of 494,000 euros, whereas a similar house in Groningen had an average price tag of 250,000 euros. Overall, the average price a private individual would pay when buying any type of existing residential property (such as single-family homes but also, for example, an apartment) was approximately 308,000 euros in 2019.

Do the Dutch prefer to buy or to rent a house?

The Netherlands had a slightly higher home ownership rate (the share of owner-occupied dwellings of all homes) in 2017 than other countries in Northwestern Europe. 69 percent of all Dutch houses were owned, whereas this percentage was roughly 51 percent in Germany and 64 percent in France. This is an effect of past developments: the price to rent ratio (the nominal purchase price of a house divided by the annual rent of a similar place) shows that for a long time it was relatively cheaper to buy a property in the Netherlands than to rent one.

Life for rent: mortgages in the Netherlands

Additionally, the Netherlands has one of the highest mortgage debts among private individuals in Europe. In 2018, total debt reached a value of approximately 714 billion euros. This has a political background as the Dutch tax system allowed homeowners for many years to deduct interest paid on mortgage from pre-tax income for a maximum period of thirty years, essentially allowing for income support for homeowners. In the Netherlands, this system is known as hypotheekrenteaftrek. Note that since 2014, the Dutch government is slowly scaling this down with a planned acceleration from 2020 onwards.