Fewer young people entering the housing market
- In 2024, fewer people aged under 25 who rented or bought a home for the first time.
- The number of people aged 25 to 34 years living with parents rose in 2024.
- New entrants to the housing market that year were mainly people who came to the Netherlands to work or study.
A total of 518 thousand people entered the housing market for the first time in 2024, compared with 560 thousand in 2023. In particular, the number of young people leaving the family home fell by 12 percent. This is according to newly released figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) compiled at the request of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
In 2024, 96 thousand people under the age of 25 entered the housing market after leaving home, down from 125 thousand in 2023. Meanwhile, in the same year, the number of people aged 25 to 34 years who left the parental home rose by 1.7 percent, but leaving home has become more difficult for this age group, too. The number of young people in this age group living with their parents rose by 5.6 percent, while among those aged 17 to 24, the number remained roughly the same.
| jaar | Aged under 25 (x 1,000) | 25-34 yrs (x 1,000) | 35 yrs and over (x 1,000) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 109.672 | 87.019 | 10.629 |
| 2022 | 97.706 | 76.771 | 9.733 |
| 2023 | 124.619 | 80.958 | 9.711 |
| 2024 | 95.916 | 83.532 | 9.753 |
New entrants to the housing market are mainly people who come to the Netherlands to work or study
New entrants to the housing market are not only young people leaving home. In fact, most new entrants are people who come to the Netherlands to work or study and rent or buy a home immediately upon arrival.
Ukrainian refugees are also new entrants to the Dutch housing market. For instance, there was a peak in the number of people migrating to the Netherlands in 2022, including many Ukrainians. The number of young people leaving home fell in the same year. After 2022, the number of migrants entering the Dutch housing market dropped by 22 percent.
People also enter the housing market from an institutional household. These include former prisoners, for example, and successful asylum applicants who move out of a reception centre and into a home of their own. The number of people moving from an institutional household remained relatively small in 2024 (22.3 thousand people), but the share rose by 13 percent.
| Soort starter | Migrant (to work or study here) (x 1,000) | Child living with parents (x 1,000) | Other household member (x 1,000) | Institutional accommodation (x 1,000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 231.178 | 207.321 | 25.954 | 18.082 |
| 2022 | 358.006 | 184.213 | 22.681 | 17.935 |
| 2023 | 299.710 | 215.288 | 24.938 | 19.873 |
| 2024 | 280.222 | 189.201 | 25.711 | 22.366 |
People entering the housing market are more likely to buy a home than rent in the private sector
In 2024, 43 percent of new entrants moved into a private-sector rental home, while around 24 percent moved into a home of their own. In 2023, the figures were 49 percent and 24 percent, respectively. The share of rental homes in the private sector is declining because these are increasingly being sold to private individuals who intend to live in them themselves. In addition to being more likely to buy a home of their own, new entrants were also more likely to move into a social housing unit – 27 percent in 2023 rising to 29 percent in 2024.
However, the increase in the share of new entrants buying a home of their own has not offset the decline in the share moving into a private-sector rental home. Compared with 2023, the number of owner-occupied homes bought by new entrants to the housing market increased by over 3 thousand in 2024, while the number of private-sector homes rented by new entrants fell by nearly 13 thousand. In 2024, nearly 157 thousand homes were bought by people entering the housing market for the first time. In 2023, this was nearly 166 thousand homes.
| Soort woning | Owner-occupied (x 1,000) | Social housing unit (x 1,000) | Private-sector rental (x 1,000) | Ownership unknown or other accommodation (x 1,000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 35.774 | 45.477 | 79.162 | 6.773 |
| 2022 | 30.820 | 44.259 | 85.599 | 8.332 |
| 2023 | 33.944 | 44.603 | 80.654 | 6.572 |
| 2024 | 37.259 | 45.085 | 67.870 | 6.287 |
New entrants are less likely to move in with other people
Not all new entrants live alone. Some share their new home with other people – either the owners or other tenants. Starting in 2021, more new entrants moved in with an existing household. However, the number fell by 8 percent in 2024, to around 106 thousand homes.
| Woningen van starters | 2021 (x 1,000) | 2022 (x 1,000) | 2023 (x 1,000) | 2024 (x 1,000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a home for themselves or with other new entrants | 167.186 | 169.010 | 165.773 | 156.501 |
| a home with people already living there | 94.324 | 109.996 | 114.257 | 105.669 |
People moving house are more likely to switch from renting to buying
In 2024, over 66 thousand homes were bought by people who had moved out of a rental home, up by 5 percent on 2023. Just like new entrants, this group was less likely to move to a rental home in the private sector. Meanwhile, in the same year, over 120 thousand private-sector rental homes were rented by people moving to their next home, down by 8 percent from 2023.