Residential property rents 9 percent up since introduction new rent policy

05/09/2014 15:00

On 11 September, at 2:45 pm, the article was adjusted. In the second sentence of the paragraph below the first figure 3.2 percent must be replaced by 3.8 percent. The adjustment was also incorporated in the second figure.

In July 2014, the average rent increase of residential property was 4.4 percent, versus 4.7 percent in July 2013. On average, rents have been raised by more than 9 percent since the introduction of the income-related rent policy on 1 July 2013. According to Statistics Netherlands, high-income tenants living in dwellings intended to provide affordable housing for low-income households faced the most substantial rent increase.

Rent increase depends on inflation and income

For the second consecutive year, the maximum rent increase in 2014 was based on the inflation rate in the preceding year, a fixed surcharge plus an income-related component. This year, the maximum rent increase varied from 4.0 percent for tenants in the lowest income brackets to 6.5 percent for tenants in the highest income brackets. The average rent increase over the past two years amounted to 9.2 percent. The inflation rate over the same period was 4.0 percent.

Rent increase on 1 July and average annual inflation

Substantial rent increase in low-rent social housing sector

Four in every five tenant-occupied dwellings are owned by organisations operating on a non-profit basis, like housing corporations. With 4.7 percent, the average rent increase in imposed by non-commercial, not liberalised, landlords was distinctly higher than the rent increase imposed by landlords operating on a commercial basis (3.8 percent). For tenants living in more expensive accommodations with liberalised rents to whom the income-related rent policy does not apply, rents were raised by 2.9 percent.

Rent increase residential property, July 2014

Maximum rent increase often imposed in low-rent social housing sector

The maximum rent increase is more often imposed in the low-rent social housing sector than in the commercial housing sector; for 62 percent of low-income tenants, the rent increase was equal to the maximum rent increase of 4.0 percent. In the category mid-level incomes, more than half had to pay the maximum rent increase of 4.5 percent. In the highest income category, two-thirds had to pay the maximum rent increase of 6.5 percent. Nearly 55 percent of tenants living in accommodations owned by commercial private landlords had to pay the maximum rent increase.

Occasionally, the rent increase exceeded the allowed maximum. That was mostly the case when new tenants moved in.

Rent increase, July 2013-July 2014

Bert van Zanten