Buying a house in Amsterdam is beyond expensive and truth be told, it’s just getting more and more unaffordable. According to figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), for the first time, the average home in Amsterdam in Q3 of 2019 costs above 500.000 euros, 507.475 euros to be exact.

Breaking the bank for a house in Amsterdam

According to the figures, the average price of a home in Q3 nationwide was 314.000 euros. In Amsterdam, prices were 35.000 euros higher than in the previous quarter. Houses in the capital have become twice as expensive since 2013.

The reason for this increase in price could be due to the types of houses being sold and their location. A spokesperson from the estate agent association NVM explains: “Previously, we saw prices stagnating because in that period all of a sudden many houses were sold outside of the city centre. Now, the exact opposite may be the case.”

Why are prices increasing?

Nic Vrieselaar, an economist at Rabobank, believes there are various reasons for the surge in house prices, one being the population growth, which is outstripping the number of houses in the city. Another is investors, who see opportunity in the scarcity of the housing market.

The low-interest-rate may also be partially to blame, as this makes it easier to borrow more for a mortgage, leading to people offering more for houses. And of course, there is simply the fact that there are not that many houses on offer in Amsterdam. In the city, just 30 percent of housing stock is resale property, whilst this figure is more than 57 percent in the rest of the country.

In Amsterdam, a huge amount of housing is social housing, which comes with strict rules regarding one’s income. This reduces the housing options available to higher-income groups. Amsterdam plans to build more than 52.000 homes by the end of 2024. 40 percent of these new homes will be social housing, another 40 percent will be mid-priced and 20 percent will be expensive rentals and sale properties.