Amsterdammers find themselves at the nadir of a Europe-wide housing shortage. But some bold initiatives offer hope
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In a pan-European housing crisis, the Netherlands’ is next level. According to independent analysis, the average Dutch home now costs €452,000 – more than 10 times the modal, or most common, Dutch salary of €44,000.
That means you need a salary of more than twice that to buy one. Nationwide, house prices have doubled in the past decade; in more sought-after neighbourhoods they have surged 130%. A new-build home costs 16 times an average salary.
The rental market is equally dysfunctional. Rents in the private sector – about 15% of the country’s total housing stock – have soared. A single room in a shared house in Amsterdam is €950 a month; a one-bed flat €1,500 or more; a three-bedder €3,500.
This is the level interest rates were 30 years ago and no one had issues buying houses then. Rates aren’t the issues, people aren’t getting oaid enough and have to compete with corporations for their basic necessities at this point
Houses were cheaper then and wages were more in line with home costs?
Not sure the point you’re trying to make. Rates are the issue in the face of the price.
One needs to fall. Price won’t. Interest is the problem. They are all functions of one another.