And the gap between rich and poor is widening, especially in big cities.
What happened? For a household with a total annual income of up to €35,000 it is almost impossible to buy a house in the Netherlands, according to the Land Registry. Moreover, even those earning up to €60,000 a year do not have much of a chance – they can only afford 37% of the houses in the country, compared to 65% four years ago.
The problem is that housing prices in the Netherlands have risen by almost 20 percent in a year. Meanwhile, supply levels have never been so low. Rental rates are also on the rise.
Details. The worst situation is in four major cities – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, because there the highest prices for housing.
The high cost of real estate in Amsterdam is also reflected in an increase in the number of millionaires in the capital. According to Statistics Netherlands, on January 1, 2020, 4.4% of Amsterdam residents were millionaires. This means that their total assets were more than €1 million, minus liabilities such as mortgages and other debts. This percentage has doubled in the last five years.
According to the statistical office, the gap between rich and poor in the Dutch capital is increasingly widening. 35% of the city’s population have high incomes and 47.6% have low incomes. The middle class makes up only 18% of the population.
