Due to the declining affordability of Dutch housing, the Netherlands faces a social problem that can cause social unrest. Paul Hilbers, the Dutch head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued a warning in a conversation with the news agency ANP. Hilbers said that the best solution is to add more buildings, no matter how difficult it may be.
He is worried that a 'large group of people' will feel that they will never have a chance to buy a house again, as housing prices have risen again after several months of decline. At the same time, due to higher mortgage interest rates, many people can borrow fewer mortgages.
At first, you would have the feeling that this is good news, but we must be careful, "Hilbers said at the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting on rising housing prices, stating that the recovery in housing prices is mainly due to market scarcity. The combination of higher prices and high interest rates reduces the affordability of owning housing.
Hilbers believes that the impact of this development on the real estate market cannot be underestimated. This result is not a bad thing for homeowners who already own homes, but it is true for those who want to buy a house now
The senior executive of the International Monetary Fund stated that if first-time homebuyers in the real estate market are excluded for a long time, it may cause tension within households and lead to increasing dissatisfaction. According to him, this dissatisfaction may also make it less easy for people to accept reform.
-Promotion in the text-
By the way, this issue is not limited to the Netherlands, and the International Monetary Fund has recently emphasized this in international settings.
Hilbers said the best solution to prevent unrest is to build more houses. In his view, the investment in construction has been "significantly insufficient" recently. He admitted, "This is a complex issue for the government, involving many aspects, such as spatial planning and environmental rules. People should be very careful to observe whether there is no solution
The Netherlands has been experiencing a shortage of housing for some time and may become increasingly severe. The real estate agency NVM recently stated in its quarterly report that the shortage of housing has increased from 315000 units a year ago to 390000 units now. NVM stated, "This means that 8.268 million people seeking housing do not have a house.
Real estate agents have noticed that housing demand is increasing, there are fewer unsold properties, and more and more new construction projects are being postponed.
The goal proposed by the Dutch government earlier was to build 100000 housing units in the Netherlands annually. But this goal is still far fetched.