Share of income spent on housing costs is highest among first-time renters

• Households spent a smaller share of their income on housing costs in 2024 than they did in 2023, on average.
• Households living in owner-occupied homes spent a smaller share of their income on housing costs than households living in a rental home.
• Differences based on the time spent in the same home are relatively small.

Households living in social housing spent an average of 24.6 percent of their income on housing costs in 2024. For households living in a private rental home, this was 30.0 percent. Households who owned a home spent an average of 16.3 percent of their income on housing costs. Young adults entering the housing market who rented a home in the private sector spent a high proportion of their income on housing costs in 2024. Among all groups, this share was slightly lower than in 2023. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of newly released figures.

The housing cost ratio — defined as the total housing costs as a percentage of disposable income — varies significantly between homeowners and those who rent a home. The differences based on period of residence are smaller. People who had lived in a private rental home for less than five years, had the highest median housing cost ratio, at 31.0 percent. Homeowners who had lived in their home for twenty years or longer, had the lowest housing cost ratio, at 15.2 percent.

Shorter period of residence linked to a higher housing cost ratio

Looking at households who have lived in their current home for less than a year, the housing cost ratio is slightly higher: 23.4 percent for homeowners, 26.5 percent for tenants in a social housing unit and 33.5 percent for tenants in a private rental unit. The housing cost ratio varies the most between homeowners who have lived in their home for less than a year and those who have lived in their home for several years.

Unlike people who rent a home – who are more likely to face annual rent increases – homeowners are more likely to enjoy stable or declining mortgage payments in combination with a rising income, meaning their housing cost ratio decreases more rapidly.

First-time renters in the private sector have the highest housing cost ratio

Households where all members moved in less than a year may consist solely of young adults entering the housing market (approximately 125 thousand households), but also of people who have moved house (approximately 350 thousand households), or a combination of these two (approximately 30 thousand households; not shown in the graph below).

People who enter the housing market for the first time generally have a higher housing cost ratio than those who move house. The difference is most significant among homeowners (26.3 percent for first-time buyers and 22.9 percent for people who move house). The highest housing cost ratio (35.1 percent) is among households where all members have entered the housing market for the first time to rent a home in the private sector.

A slight difference between first-time buyers in major cities and those in the rest of the country

First-time buyers who own a home in one of the four major cities of the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) have roughly the same housing cost ratio as those living in other parts of the country. By contrast, homeowners who move house within one of the major cities have a slightly higher housing cost ratio (between 24.8 and 25.4 percent) than those moving house in other parts of the country (22.6 percent). They also have higher median housing costs (between around 1,300 euros and 1,500 euros per month) than those living in other parts of the country (around 1,200 euros).

The figures were taken from Woonbase, the housing survey based on integrated data sources. Woonbase was created by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK). 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.