How The Netherlands got into a Massive Housing Crisis

#netherlands #housingcrisis #amsterdam #groningen #university #students

The housing market in The Netherlands is crazy right now. Want to rent? Here's a waiting list of 19 years. Want to buy? Here's a bunch of houses you can't afford.

It wasn't always like this, and apparently we are in the middle of this "perfect storm" making the housing crisis even worse. In this video I cover the multiple aspects that caused this crisis, and also briefly talk about some solutions proposed by the Dutch financial supervisor.

If you have any experience with this housing crisis, don't be shy to leave a comment!

I try to use either Public Domain or CC0 licensed video & images. Anything else I consider “fair use”. If you don’t agree with something falling under “fair use”, don’t hesitate to contact me and I will respect your request.

Please be aware that this video is meant for entertainment purposes. While I spend lots of time on thorough research and citing my sources, this video cannot be assumed as 100% accurate.

Music by: Epidemic Sound

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[jedu_youtube]

Help my small channel grow and consider subscribing. It's free, unlike a house 🏠

[Caprifool]

Young Dutch couples are freezing their eggs, knowing they wont be able to provide a permanent home for a child before menopause.

Meanwhile, there is already environmentally friendly, or friendlier concretes and materials used in other countries. That the Dutch government choose to ignore. Plus the Dutch idea that "A real house is built with bricks." making alternative materials unpopular. Which surprises me in such a otherwise free thinking country.

[darrenowen]

Very similar to the UK. Similar causes too, 'property' is allowed to be seen as an investment rather than as a home, too much NIMBYism and too many incomers.
I do worry for young people starting out.

[Aezur]

I moved to the Netherlands about 3 weeks ago. Hilariously, I moved to the Netherlands because Ireland's housing crisis is at the point that there was 2 apartments to rent in my city when I left. I don't have a family, so the governments "you can just live with your parents" plan doesn't work for me.

[Booren]

Guys, have you thought of simply retaking Belgium? What would help.

[charlesponzi]

All by design. Same story in many countries including Canada and Australia.

Low interest rates and easy credit also played an important role in creating this housing crisis.

I think the push here in The Netherlands to get rid of our farmers is to free up more land for beautiful concrete apartments like they built in Amstelveen. The goal seems to be to turn our country into one megacity (Tristate city overflowing into Belgium and Germany) while saving the environment from farting cows.

[ronnie]

Ik dacht er vroeger over na 25 jaar terug te komen naar Nederland. En ergens wonen natuurlijk. Maar dat station is passe. Toch is de situatie niet uniek. In de 50tiger jaren was de woningnood nog nijpender. Verplicht iemand laten inwonen als er een kamer over was. Daar moet je nu toch niet meer aan denken. En natuurlijk is het ook, minstens sinds die tijd, moeilijk om aan betaalbare woonruimte te komen. Je kunt hooguit zeggen dat in zeer vele decennia van woningnood de situatie nu het ergste is sinds de vijftiger jaren. Maar ook ik moest al 4 jaar ingeschreven staan in Utrecht om aan een kamer te wonen en woonde tot die tijd bij mijn moeder in Utrecht. Niet als student maar als werkende met een inkomen. Dat was in de 80er jaren. Een kamer! geen woning. Na een paar jaar wilde ik iets groters. Vrije sektor was ook toen te duur, en bij de sociale woningen was een wachtlijst van 6 tot 8 jaar. Ben naar Almere gevlucht (dat was niet zo erg als gedacht gelukkig). Toen ik naar de dertig liep en goed ging verdienen kon ik nog net een oud en slecht onderhouden flatje in Utrecht kopen, wat ik deed. Tophypotheek met anderhalf keer modaal... En een paar jaren later kon ik in het buitenland gaan werken. Vanaf een afstand zie je eigenlijk hoe uniek slecht de situatie in Nederland is. De gekte is er al vele decennia, niet de laatste 5-8 jaar zoals in de omringende landen. Buiten de Randstad kun je nog wel wat krijgen. Huren niet natuurlijk, het lijkt wel of er een algemeen verbod is op huren, zo moeilijk wordt het je gemaakt. Dat dwingt de mensen de veels te hoge prijzen te betalen en zo het pyramidespel in stand te houden. Maar die bitterballen en een frikandel speciaal, tja dat mis ik nog steeds af en toe.

[nickderidder]

im a student and I've been homeless for basically a little over a year now, the dutch minimum wage for those younger 21 years old doesn't help at all.

[PigeonsSoapbox]

Great video, Jedu! The quality of the editing is amazing. And I learned a lot.

Other places like Ireland, Spain and Portugal are facing similar problems right now, it's interesting to see that housing is increasingly becoming a key political issue.

[ohwhatworld]

How many of the policy makers are landlords, or have donors/friends who are landlords? Most of them I would say. They have deliberately let things get this bad so prices will skyrocket earning themselves and their buddies a nice income. It is the same in the UK, and I would imagine most other countries.

[andreimircea]

I think the netherlands needs more mid-rises. I don’t see them often enough and I think if there are more mid-size homes and/or small apartments then the housing market will recover. Because while on a much smaller scale than the US, I think the Netherlands in its own way has a single family home problem.

[Geistenzelda]

+1 for the bitterballs, sharing some peak Dutch culture right there.

But also, great editing and story telling, keep it up!

[lemenja]

I am on the point of becoming homeless because of the stupid rules here in the Netherlands. The local authorities notice after 17 years that my landlord had the wrong paperwork for the house I rent, their solution, I have to move and the property (and a apartment of almost 50m2 will be unused) He can’t get the right paperwork because the local authorities wanna make a stand against renting out parts of your home. So there will be a perfectly fine apartment unused, and there are multiples in my city. There are studio’s in Amsterdam who can’t be rent out because of regulations.. To be clear my apartment is just €525 in the ‘randstad’ it’s not that he asking for a ridiculous amount of money and they need to fight that.. And if you don’t get an indication it’s almost impossible to get a social renting home in Amsterdam and surrounding in 2022 only a 0, 18% chance… yep what a great country we live in…

[danijelknezevic-irqn]

Greetings from Croatia, another EU member, that has the exactly opposite problem
Our country went from 4, 75 million people in 1991 to 3, 8 million in 2021
Yes we had a 5 year war that killed 20.000 people, but that was 30 years ago, now we have low birth rate, and high emigration to western countries, like the NED
Jus my region went from 296.000 people to 266.000 in just 10 years from 2011 to 2021
So if you need somewhere to live, come to Croatia, we are in EU and schengen :)

[ChesterBlaster]

It has nothing to do with anything besides making money for the rich.

[Javid-sw]

I would recommend you remove the background music for next videos. It distracts from focusing on the topic

[LoekVIII]

I know bro, at this point we'are better off buying a sinking boat for shelter than try entering the housing market, anything really

[Dee_dk]

The biggest issue isn't immigration, it's how ridiculously easy it is to double your money in the Dutch housing market as an investor. Government policies over the past 15 years under the right-wing rule of Mark Rutte have made it loads easier to invest in (rental) properties, even as a foreign investor. In fact, Stef Blok for example (a minister in one of those cabinets) was essentially selling the Dutch market to foreign investors as a "great opportunity." Loads of houses remain empty because of this, since they're just objects growing in value. Properties that are rented out are often neglected by landlords and really expensive because our country lacks laws against such practices. This was combined with much stricter laws against squatting. Banks suddenly giving out huge sums of money because of the economic boom. Salaries barely keeping up with inflation. Social rental housing being demolished for gentrification purposes (less and higher class housing is built in its place). An entire generation of students stuck in loan debt hell because of shitty government policies. I could go on...

By now, there are only a few ways to enter the Dutch housing market; either be rich, or already own a house. Starters only make it if they are a dual income family of upper middle class. Hell, our former minister of Housing was asked the question by a recently graduated doctor; "how will I buy a house? I make lots of money but thanks to your policies I'm stuck in debt hell." His answer was literally "find a rich husband." I think that displays the mentality of our politicians best. This country favors the rich over the regular people, and blames the problems that causes on immigrants.

TL;DR: Rich getting richer.

[AdLockhorst-bfpz]

Ever since the late 1960s the birthrate in the Netherlands has been below the replacement rate; the rising life expectancy has a tiny effect on the population size. Immigration is the reason why the population keeps growing.

There is another factor that causes the housing shortage; smaller households. Lots of single person households. Among the elderly, lots of widows, few widowers. And with few *bejaardentehuizen* the elderly can't move on, which in turn means others can't move on.

[tiagow]

How could NL government solve this?? Just build housing. Literally, pay to build apartment buildings to house it's residents for a reasonable price, just like Vienna did. It's so simple.