Share of income spent on housing fell between 2018 and 2023

House sold in The Hague Leidschenveen
© CBS
The median housing cost ratio – i.e. total housing costs as a percentage of household income – was lower in 2023 than in 2018 for both home owners and tenants. The sharpest decline was seen among households living in social housing, from 31.0 percent in 2018 to 25.4 percent in 2023. However, the median housing cost ratio was also lower in 2023 than in 2018 for households living in owner-occupied dwellings and for households renting from a non-housing association. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this based on newly released figures from the Woonbase, a housing database produced by CBS.

Housing costs rose the most sharply for tenants not renting from housing associations

Total housing costs (i.e. a household’s total monthly housing expenses) were higher in 2023 than in 2018. For tenants not renting from housing associations, median housing costs rose the most, by 23 percent; while for home owners they rose by 6 percent and for social housing tenants by 11 percent. Tenants of housing association properties benefited particularly from both the government's energy allowance to reduce household energy costs in the autumn of 2022 and from the freeze on basic rents for social housing in the summer of 2021. These were both contributing factors.


Incomes have risen more rapidly than housing costs

The lower housing cost ratio is the result of the fact that the average household income rose more rapidly between 2018 and 2023 than housing costs. In 2023, the median income rose the most sharply among tenants not renting from housing associations, up by 33 percent on 2018. For home owners and housing association tenants, average incomes rose by 27 and 25 percent, respectively.


Number of tenants not renting from housing associations increased the most sharply

In relative terms, the group with the highest housing costs - tenants not renting from housing associations - has grown the most sharply since 2018, from around 670 thousand households in 2018 to around 825 thousand households in 2023. That was an increase of approximately 23 percent. The number of home owners and housing association tenants increased marginally between 2018 and 2023, by 4 and 1 percent respectively. Tenants not renting from housing associations remain the smallest group, at 11 percent, followed by social housing tenants (28 percent) and home owners (60 percent).

These figures are taken from the Woonbase, the new housing survey based on integrated data sources. The Woonbase was developed by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) in cooperation with the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning (VRO). With effect from 2022, CBS’s Woonbase has provided the regular annual figures on housing cost ratio in the Netherlands. The figures in this news release refer to private households in regular housing, excluding student households and other households sharing the same address.

Sources