House rents up by 3 percent on average

Higher rent increase than in 2021 due to new policy regulations

The Dutch government’s rental policy has been modified as of 1 July 2022; unlike last year, rental price increases are now permitted in the rent-controlled sector. These rental prices may be increased by a fixed amount, namely a maximum of 50 euros for middle incomes and of 100 euros for higher incomes. Rents below 300 euros a month may be raised by 25 euros, regardless of the tenant’s household income. For all other incomes, rents may be raised by up to 2.3 percent.
For the year 2022, private sector rents are allowed to increase by the average inflation rate over the period December 2020-November 2021 inclusive, plus 1 percentage point. This means that rents may increase by up to 3.3 percent for existing private sector tenants.

Sharper increase among social housing landlords

Over 32 percent of all rental property is owned by landlords who are not social housing landlords. Social housing which is owned by such landlords has increased in rent by 2.8 percent on average this year; among social housing corporations, the increase amounted to 2.6 percent.
Private sector rents rose by 3.8 percent on average this year, up from 2.2 percent in 2021. These are dwellings which may also be owned by either corporations or other social housing landlords. To determine whether a rented dwelling belongs to the private sector or not, the net rental price at the start of the tenancy agreement is used. If the net rental price at the start of the agreement exceeds the so-called liberalisation threshold, it is considered to be a private sector dwelling. In 2022, the threshold was set at a net rental price of 763.47 euros.

Rents rise more steeply during a change of tenant

As soon as a rented dwelling has a change of tenant, the landlord is no longer bound by a maximum annual rent increase. Rented dwellings with a change of tenant between 1 July 2021 and 1 July 2022 had on average 9.7 percent higher rents as of July 2022 compared to year previously. This was still 7.2 percent year on year in 2021. If dwellings with tenancy changes are not included, rents were up by an average of 2.4 percent.

Highest rent increase in Amsterdam

Among the four large municipalities, Amsterdam saw the highest average rent increase at 3.6 percent; not including tenancy changes, the rents there went up by 2.5 percent on average this year. In addition, the rent increase due to tenancy changes was the highest there (1.1 percentage point).
Not taking into account tenancy changes, Utrecht saw the highest rent increase among the four large municipalities: 2.7 percent on average.
At the provincial level, rents rose most sharply in Noord-Holland: by 3.4 percent on average. Tenancy changes also had the greatest effect on the rent increase in that province, namely 1 percentage point. Not including tenancy changes, the sharpest year-on-year rent increase was recorded in Utrecht province as well, namely 2.6 percent.
The lowest total rent increase was found in the provinces of Fryslân and Drenthe at 2.5 percent on average. In Fryslân, rents without tenancy changes increased by 2.1 percent, just as in Overijssel. Tenancy changes had relatively the smallest effect on rent increases in Flevoland: 0.2 percentage point.