The Netherlands started this year with 3,000 fewer private-sector rental homes than a year earlier. Statistics show private individual landlords owned 22,000 fewer rentals, while companies, foundations and associations added about 19,000 (mainly via new builds, splits and renovations). Net result: the private rental stock dipped to about 1.18 million homes.
What’s driving the sell-off
Several rule changes have made renting out homes less profitable for small landlords, especially in the cheaper and mid-price range. For example, the Affordable Rent Act now uses a points system to cap rents for many mid-range homes (not just social housing). The transfer tax you pay when buying a rental has gone up, making purchases more expensive. Big cities have added purchase-to-let limits (so you can’t always buy a home and rent it out right away). And the Box 3 wealth tax on assets has increased for many owners.
Because of this mix, many small landlords chose to sell their properties to people who will live in them. This happened a lot in Utrecht and Noord-Holland, where over 5% of private rentals switched to owner-occupied homes.
Bigger landlords are holding or growing
While many small landlords have sold their rentals, large owners (like companies, foundations, and housing associations) have mostly kept or added homes. In 2024, companies added about 12,000 rentals (to roughly 419,000 in total) and foundations/associations added around 7,000 (to about 235,000). This softened the overall drop caused by small landlords selling. Earlier data show the same pattern: student cities lost many small, cheaper rentals, but big investors and new building projects helped stop the total from falling even faster.
Photo Credits: Chris Wormhoudt/Unsplash
Impact on renters
With fewer private rentals on the market, competition goes up and asking rents rise, especially in the free-sector (unregulated) segment. By mid-2025, dashboards already showed fewer listings and double-digit price jumps for first lets. In short: more people chasing fewer homes pushes prices higher.
What industry and politics say
The landlords’ group Vastgoed Belang calls the decline worrying during a housing shortage. They argue that current rules drive private investors away, shrinking supply. The caretaker housing minister suggested easing some mid-rent rules, but Parliament rejected that plan. Instead, smaller steps to protect and keep mid-rent homes are moving ahead. The core debate now is how to protect tenants and keep rents fair without scaring off the private landlords needed to keep enough homes on the market.
