According to research from property consultant Capital Value, this year a record number of rental houses were sold, namely around 46.000, with a total value of 8,5 billion euros. These figures illustrate an increase of 63 percent in property investment compared to 2017.

Dutch property investment market records broken

This year, every single property investment market record has been broken. Four years ago, transaction value was around three billion euros, something which is now much more than eight billion euros. Never before have so many rental houses been sold, nor were there so many large housing portfolios which changed hands. In 2018, 18 housing portfolios worth more than 100 million euros were sold.

The largest of these portfolio acquisitions was Delta Lloyd, which was taken over by property investor Vesteda. Vesteda acquired almost 6.000 rental housing and another 800 under construction. Pension funds, corporations and other large investors have also been involved in considerable property transaction this year.

Scarcity on the Dutch housing market has lead to a rapid increase in rental prices; this is one of the most important reasons for the increase in property investment and portfolio acquisitions. The increase in rental prices makes for an interesting investment market for private investors, along with institutional and foreign investors.

Capital Value previously observed an unprecedented interest in rental housing as an investment for foreign investors, such as foreign pension funds. According to their research, foreign investors spent two billion euros on rental houses in 2018 and may invest 12 billion euros in the coming three years.

It’s not just Dutch rental houses

Investors are not only interested in rental housing, more investments than ever before have been made in care and student housing too. Around mid-2018, 300 million euros had been invested in care housing. Now, at the end of 2018, this figure is almost one billion euros; that’s a huge amount of growth in just six months. Care housing investments now account for 11 percent of the property investment market.

Student housing is also very popular amongst investors this year, with 734 million euros having been invested in this segment of the market. This particular segment accounts for nine percent of the property investment market.

The fact that a large number of rental houses have been sold is good news, as the capital can then be invested in the construction of new houses. In 2018, around 3,5 billion euros was invested in new build home projects and renovations. This created 19.000 rental homes, helping to alleviate the housing shortage.