House rents in the Netherlands have increased by 2.9 percent in the past year. That is the highest percentage since 2014, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Monday.
The price increase mainly occurs in the social sector. Housing associations increased their rents by 2.7 percent. The year before that was 2.0 percent.
In the free sector, rents rose by 3 percent. That percentage was actually lower than the year before, when tenants had to pay 3.3 percent more.
An important cause is inflation. Corporations are allowed to increase the price by the maximum inflation rate plus an income-related supplement. Inflation has been on the rise for a few years now and so are social rents.
Incidentally, landlords are not bound by the maximum if a new tenant moves into the home. The average rent increase during a tenant change was 9.5 percent last year. The year before this was still 8.2 percent.
Rents are rising fastest in Rotterdam
For the first time in years, rents rose the fastest not in Amsterdam, but in Rotterdam. There tenants pay 4.1 percent more, in the capital it is 3.5 percent.
Drenthe had the lowest rent increase in the Netherlands for years in a row, but this year it is suddenly the province where rents rose the fastest, after North and South Holland, at 3 percent.
According to Statistics Netherlands, these regional fluctuations, especially in the large cities, are largely due to rent increases when residents change.
– .
