The Netherland’s transaction volume of the residential investment market will once again reach record levels in 2019. While a record of 8.5 billion euros in investment was reached last year, 9.3 billion euros is expected to be reached by year-end 2019. Interest from both domestic and international investors in Dutch residential rental properties continues to remain strong. International investors continue to play an important role in the calculation of the total transaction volume.
A total of more than 47,000 residential rental homes were sold in 2019. Approximately 33% of those were newly built which totals to 16,000 residential rental homes. Last year, this percentage was 43% when approximately 20,000 new residential rental homes were sold. Dutch pension funds remain the most important investors in new-build output.
The most important cause for the lower number of newly-built residential homes as compared to 2018 is the rise in construction costs and the fall in the number of issued building permits, as well as the slowdown in building projects due to various factors such the nitrogen oxide pollution crisis and capacity shortages in municipalities.
The number of issued building permits is expected to reach approximately 47,000 this year. This number is 37% lower than the governmental objective of 75,000 building permits per year. In order to stimulate the number of building permits, more must be done at the municipal level to accelerate procedures.