Housing costs in the Netherlands higher than in most EU countries

In order to measure the affordability of housing in a given country, we can look at the proportion of disposable income that people spend on housing (including both rents and mortgage costs). When we compare all EU member states, the cost of putting a roof over your head is the highest in Greece, where people spent an average of 34 percent of disposable income on housing in 2022. People in Malta spent the lowest share of their income on housing, at just 9 percent in 2022. In the Netherlands the average was 23 percent of disposable income in 2022, which is above the European average of 20 percent. CBS’s annual Monitor of Well-being shows that housing costs are on a downward trend in the Netherlands, in relative terms. For most countries, housing costs as a proportion of disposable income were slightly lower in 2022 than in 2015.

Rents higher than in 2015 almost everywhere in the EU

In 2023, rents in the European Union were 13.3 percent higher than they were in 2015, on average. Rents were higher than in 2015 in every EU member state with the exception of Greece, where they were 2.1 percent lower. Rents in the Netherlands were 18.5 percent higher in 2023 than they were in 2015.

The increase in rents compared to 2015 was the highest in certain Central and Eastern European countries. In Lithuania, for instance, rents were 68.2 percent higher in 2023 than they were in 2015.

Young people in the Netherlands more likely to live independently

CBS’s annual Monitor of Well-being shows that in different European member states, young people tend to leave their parents’ home and live independently at different ages. We can see this by looking at the proportion of young people (aged 25 to 29 years old) who still live with their parent(s). This proportion is the highest in Croatia, at 80.7 percent. In Slovakia and southern European member states too, such as Italy, Portugal and Spain, a relatively high proportion of young people live with their parent(s).

The picture in the Netherlands is quite different. In our country, 17.3 percent of young people were living at home with their parent(s) on 1 January 2023. Only in the Scandinavian member states (Sweden, Finland and Denmark) was this proportion lower. The relatively large difference between the three Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands is striking, however. In Denmark, less than 5 percent of young people aged between 25 and 29 were living with their parent(s) on 1 January 2023.