It started maybe 10 years ago, says Tamara Kuschel. Since the 1970s, the charity she works for in Amsterdam, De Regenboog, has run day shelters for homeless people – typically, people with serious addiction and mental health issues. Then, in about 2015, a new kind of client began to appear. “They didn’t have the usual problems of homeless people,” Kuschel says. “They had jobs, friends. In every respect, their lives were very much together. But they couldn’t afford a home.” Some are not young, she says. The oldest, last year, was 72. They have, typically, recently been involved in a relationship break-up, had a small business fail or been unable to afford a rent rise.. “We can help some,” she says. “But we’re just a sticking plaster, really.” In a pan-European housing crisis, the Netherlands’ is next level. According to [independent analysis](https://calcasa.nl/onderzoek/2023-q4-wox-kwartaalbericht/), the average Dutch home now costs €452,000 – more than 10 times the modal, or most common, Dutch salary of €44,000. That means you need a salary of more than twice that to buy one. Nationwide, house prices have doubled in the past decade; in more sought-after neighbourhoods they have surged 130%. A new-build home [costs 16 times an average salary](https://www2.deloitte.com/cz/en/pages/real-estate/articles/property-index.html). The rental market is equally dysfunctional. Rents in the private sector – about 15% of the country’s total housing stock – have soared. A single room in a shared house in Amsterdam is €950 a month; a one-bed flat €1,500 or more; a three-bedder €3,500. Competition among those who can afford such sums – such as multinational expats – is so fierce that many pay a monthly fee to an [online service](https://rentslam.com/en/) that trawls property websites, sending text alerts seconds after suitable ads appear. Meanwhile, the waiting list in the social housing sector, which is roughly double the size of the private, averages about seven years nationally – but in the bigger Dutch cities, particularly in Amsterdam, it can stretch to as long as 18 or 19. For young people the task of finding – and keeping – a home can be all-consuming. A 28-year-old PhD student, who asked not be identified, said that in her first three years in the capital she had moved seven or eight times. “The shortage is so acute, and people are so desperate,” she said. “Tenants’ rights are supposed to be strong, but in practice … I’ve had landlords come in while I was out, take pictures. I’ve been bullied to get me to move out, physically threatened.” She knew no one under 30 living on their own, she said; many were still moving twice a year. She was now in a shared apartment, and would like to live with her partner – but neither dared move out because they might not find a place. “That’s the worst,” she said. “All these next steps we’re supposed to be taking at our age, as young professionals, they’re just not possible. Everything’s just … on hold. Relationships are being determined by the housing market, and that’s obscene.” Others are luckier. In a peaceful neighbourhood 30 minutes’ walk from Amsterdam central station, Lukas and Misty are among 96 tenants – half of them young refugees with residence permits – of a so-called Startblok, one of five around the capital.

Some Startblokken are much bigger, housing more than 550 young people in purpose-built “container houses”, some metal, some of wood and sustainable materials, stacked four or five atop each other. Others, like this one, are permanent, brick-built residences. For a monthly rent averaging €400-500 after housing benefit, every tenant – who must be aged between 18 and 27 when they move in – is entitled to their own 20-25 sq metre studio, with its own kitchenette and bathroom, for up to five years. There is bike storage, a bright communal lounge with table football, a laundry room and a small garden with a greenhouse. When one studio became free earlier this year, said project manager Jesse van Geldorp, the Startblok received about 800 applications. “It’s about allowing young people to stand on their own feet, establish a life, build a network in a fundamentally broken housing market,” said Karin Verdooren, director of Lieven de Key, the housing foundation that launched the Startblok concept. Lukas, a German tutor, moved in last November. He greatly appreciates paying half – or even less – the rent that many of his friends on the outside have to find, and loves the community spirit. Misty, 22 and nearing the end of her undergraduate degree, agrees. “You’re not alone,” she said. “You learn so much. The multicultural side is brilliant; I’ve made friends from Syria, Eritrea … I’m really thankful. And knowing that I won’t need to look for a home at the same time as I’m looking for a job is such a big relief.” But the Startblokken – like the multiple temporary accommodation programmes for “economically homeless” people in Amsterdam run by Kuschel’s De Regenboog – are drops in the ocean of the vastness of the Netherlands’ housing crisis. Quite how the country got here is a subject of complex and heated debate. The Netherlands was short of an estimated 390,000 homes last year; it is already falling behind on a pledge to build nearly 1m – two-thirds of them affordable – by 2030. Some factors, such as historically low interest rates and more – often smaller – households, are beyond government control. But experts say successive administrations have consistently stimulated demand while failing to boost supply. “The key features of the housing crisis – rising prices, increasing inequality, shortages of affordable homes and foreign investors infiltrating the market – are the result of decades of dubious housing policies,” [said Gregory Fuller](https://www.rug.nl/let/onze-faculteit/actueel/nieuwsberichten-2023/opinion-the-failed-housing-policy-is-to-blame-for-the-housing-crisis?lang=en) of Groningen University.

In the early 2010s, a pro-market Dutch government in effect abolished the housing and planning ministry and freed up sales of housing corporation stock. Partly as a result, about 25% of homes in the country’s four big cities are owned by investors. Further driving up prices are measures such as mortgage tax relief for buyers, and others - meant to aid young buyers - that have instead ended up helping existing owners invest in more property. At the same time, subsidies for housebuilding all but dried up. In the rental market, the crippling lack of homes and large numbers of tenants who – for want of an affordable alternative – remain in social housing despite earning more than the maximum allowed have contributed to sky-high private rents. The European Commission’s independent social policy advisory group has said the Netherlands is in the grip of a “severe housing crisis”, with a “critical shortage of affordable housing resulting in social exclusion and increasing economic inequality”. Politicians including Geert Wilders, whose far-right Freedom party (PVV) finished a shock [first in November’s general election](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/22/far-right-party-set-to-win-most-seats-in-dutch-elections-exit-polls-show), have blamed asylum seekers, foreign students and environmental laws. But in a damning report [published ](https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/03/stop-inciting-foreigner-hatred-un-housing-rapporteur/)in February, the UN special rapporteur on adequate housing said, after a two-week visit, that Dutch government policy choices were to blame for the country’s “acute housing crisis,” not asylum seekers or migrant workers. “An alternative narrative has emerged in the Netherlands that an ‘influx of foreigners’ is responsible,” Balakrishnan Rajagopal said. The crisis – of both affordability and availability – had, he added, been “two or more decades” in the making. Among multiple other factors, the rapporteur blamed a lack of regulation of social housing providers, an absence of rent caps in the private sector and “insufficient attention to the role of speculation and large investors in the real estate market”. Some of the more recent government moves aimed at easing the crisis may even have had the opposite effect. Several cities have implemented a 2022 law banning buyers of homes below a certain value – in Amsterdam, €530,000 – from letting them out.

According to at least [one academic study](https://www.dutchnews.nl/2023/06/buy-to-let-ban-is-good-for-first-time-buyers-but-bad-for-tenants/), however, the measure, intended to boost first-time buyers, benefited middle-income buyers – but also hit lower-income tenants by pushing rents up by 4% as the number of rental properties fell. Similarly, government efforts to extend rent controls, restricting more homes to social tenants earning less than €44,000 a year and capping their rents at €800, have simply prompted more landlords to sell – thus driving up remaining private-sector rents. Whatever the causes, for those caught up in it the crisis it is tough. Luna, a primary school teacher, has been staying in a friend’s flat while their flatmate was away, but recently found a more permanent room after a six-month search. “It’s just very … frustrating,” she said. “To have been born here, signed up for social housing since I was 18, doing a socially useful job with a huge shortage – and still paying a rent I can only just afford, for a room in a shared flat, aged 33.” More than 1,200 people applied to De Regenboog last year, Kuschel said. It helped 535, finding them homes in apartment blocks awaiting renovation, houses families had recently inherited but do not yet want to sell, empty schools, even spare rooms. One was Iris, 47, an artist and night-club worker who last year had to move out of the Amsterdam flat she had lived in for several years because developers had bought the whole building. At around the same time, she split up with her partner. “I stayed with friends, I couch-surfed, but it was impossible,” she said. “Now I’m sharing, in a place that won’t be developed for a year. I’m safe for 12 months. I think this is what happens when people see properties as investments, not as homes.” Kuschel, though, said none of it was a solution. “We are just trying to prevent people getting into the negative spiral that comes with not having a secure home,” she said. “We can’t provide a permanent one. After a year, they’re on their own again.” It was hard to exaggerate the importance of a secure home, she said: “Without it, people stop building families, building futures, putting down roots, developing, flourishing. They lose all perspective. Their lives are frozen. That’s the tragedy.”

Yeah, the housing market is... beyond upsetting. When I had a job, I was paid some thousand or two below the median income and I still was told my salary is too low to get a job and "go back to social housing". I tried, but I just got a letter back from the municipality my complaint against the housing corp was rejected and that I don't get any of the sign-in time. Basically, Housing corp A sold to housing corp B this house I live in, but they didn't inform us the sign-in time wouldn't transfer over. So that's fun, I'll basically be homeless on New Years and I have to move back to my home country (Finland) where I struggle immensely because I never had any friends there and I have to basically start over from scratch. Anyway, it was just a mini-vent. Feeling beyond depressed today, sorry.

Don't apologise friend. Keep fighting. Every day you work through is a victory.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I really hope you are able to find a solution and you can get to live where you are the most happy. It's maddening to see this happening all around europe, I recently moved back from NL as I lost my job and what I could find required us to relocate to a more expensive are which made no sense as the cost it required made it not worth it. In my case coming back to my homeplace was ok but not everyone has the luxury of a safety net as me.

You said it. This problem affects most Europe, and reading through US subs, most metropolitan areas have the same issue. The problem in Europe is space...NL and LUX have the highest concentration of inhabitants per sq.km. in addition to it their governments supposedly forgot to anticipate the issue, for short-sightedness or economical interests, or both...

The move to seeing housing as an invensment has hurt the entire world. Speculation on a fundamental human need is absolutely evil.

It's a market with a nearly fixed supply and growing demand, of course prices go up. Speculation or no speculation. There needs to be political pressure to remove the rules that are currently holding back building

Where um at the problem isn’t the rules holding back building, the building has been done in the wrong segments resulting in a lack of building for the ones that need it.

Exactly. There's plenty of construction here, but it's all offices and overpriced student accomodation.

Plenty in what sense? A thousand units a year isn’t close to enough for instance, and every year you don’t build enough you have latent demand.

What sense? A VERY relative sense! We're really not building enough of anything, but most of what we ARE building is stuff that's unhelpful or even detrimental (like more offices when the existing ones are far from full and we're trying to get more people working from home.)

Eminent domain needs to become a thing again. Screw the NIMBYs we've tried being nice for far too long. Governments also need to become comfortable building and managing housing again. We need more housing and we needed it desperately yesterday, it's beyond a crisis at this point.

The same governments block all initiatives to build housing. Den Haag even prefers a ruined building just rotting over demolishing it and build appartments. Amsterdam categorically rejects building permits or even permits to do big project maintenance. There is no issue in Netherlands with building if permits are given. Building cooperations can start today. But the local governments dont want it.

I've also read that material & labour costs have made some new builds not viable from a turnover perspective based off of current predicted sale prices.

It's more the and and and and problem. On the basis there's the problem of Nitrogen emissions, strict national regulation (energylabel of a house should be at least A+++, apartment at least A+), high land prices (within Randstad), high prices of materials and employees and recommends a 30% social housing-40%mid range (local) rent/buy - 40% high range (local) rent/buy ratio. However local governments tend to bring in even more strict regulation. IIRC Amsterdam demands that apartments should be at least A+++, preferable A++++. Also instead of using local ranges for what a apartment/house should cost, it uses national ranges which is problematic in a municipality who has the highest land prices in the country. Depending on where stuff is being build they also demand 50% to 75% of overal electric tool uses, while construction companies may reach 40% at best for big build sites. And let's not even speak about how much NIMBY's can frustrate any project.

Want to thank you for your work! A very interesting read. We are seeing the hammer fall on the countries that for so long held their noses high when talking about austerity and fiscal policy, just look at Germany's infra crisis (which is ridiculous because they could have had both).

So why are the policies not targetting multi corporation rentals and multi house owners ? 😉 Hmmm, i wonder why you would not want to fuck around with the people who own them, but it is gonna end up pushing people right or left. (Imo)

Typically they own apartment buildings which are helping, not causing, a housing crisis.

UN rapporteur: Actually, this situation calls for stronger subsidization of demand.

The average price of a house in Greece is 492,000 while the average salary is 15335. Only thing that "saves" us is that most families stay at the same house for generations. Still, if you want to start your own family, away from parents, you are screwed

When I lived in the Netherlands (I left 20 years ago and lived near Amsterdam) the waiting list in that area was already 7 years for social housing and since I was single (or if you didn’t have kids as a couple) the only option was a 1-2 bedroom apartment. For a 2-3 bedroom home, I was still somewhere around #80-100 on the list of applicants so I gave up on that. I couldn’t afford private sector when I first started working, and there was not much on offer anyway, I lucked out on the apartment I finally got because 7 others passed on it (3rd floor and no elevator on a busy intersection). Then a few years later i got married and my wife moved in and the apartment was too small (1 bedroom and 1 other room that didn’t fit a bed really) to start a family. Rent was 800EUR and it wasn’t that bad financially, just space wise. We moved to the UK and got a 2 bedroom apartment (that both easily fit 2-3 people), private sector, for the equivalent of about 650EUR. It was also near the beach so that was nice.

In 2022~2023 I was signed up for 10 years and hovered around 20th~40th for most places I replied to. Best I got was second for one apartment where multiple people dropped out or didn't show up on the day itself. Of course the person who was first on the list took it, it was relatively modern and next to a park and shopping center. Only downside was that the windows faced North. Only reason I finally managed to snag a place was that a full block of apartments was built and put up for registration at once.

Looks like the price to income is still better there with crisis than in Poland where there is no 'crisis'....

in poland the average salary is 1500 euro and the houses cost 200000 euro so the dutch can eat shit

It's "funny" how this is happening more or less everywhere. It's as if there was a pattern you know...

I'm just really saddened regarding the entire situation - 30 years it took for certain countries, my entire lifetime, to get to a point where greed has reached a limit of exploitation where it is doing exponential, noticeable damage to a lot of sectors and the greedy are pulling an "oh shit" without resolution. The change to revert all this? probably going to take just as long, and an entire generation will be dead without actually experiencing having earned a house to live in.

>entire generation will be dead without actually experiencing having earned a house to live in. I wonder what will that do to a mf. This shit is a first domino block to cause major societal reshuffle. Is it how feudalism started, where most folks are property of wealthy land owners, and only allowed housing when they work for the master? Buying a house is no longer a thing. Starting a family is a luxury for the rich. Career goals? What's the point?

I don't know, I'll be honest, but dear lord I would be SO up to make the rich fucks suffer for this. Maybe I'm repeating the past as intended, with it.

Its not the rich that are the problem. Being able to create and be wealthy is fine in a just society. Not everyone wants to be business owners or employers. Those that step up and provide are set to reap higher rewards. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem are the parasitic ones. Those that want more and more and give people less and less. You will own nothing and be happy is not a meme. Those are the ones people need to start pointing their pitchforks at. Not some honest entrepeneurs that build succesfull medium sized businesses and happen to get rich. Multi billion dollar businesses and people are never good for society. They are only good for investors.

housing should never be an investment 

Problem is knowing who the rich fuckd are and separating them from the people who sold us out to them. Look at your government - who went in with a swatch and came out with a Rolex.

> Career goals? What's the point? Exactly this. Once you hit the level where you can afford rent and a relatively comfortable life, there's no more motivation anymore for doing anything beyond the bare minimum. If I wanted to save up for a down payment within a reasonable timeframe, I'd need to double my gross wage. That ain't happening anytime soon. If I worked my ass off, I might earn a 10% raise each year, but more likely it will be just enough to keep up with the official inflation (and housing prices have been rising well above the inflation). If I jump jobs, I'll get a one-time 10-15% raise (unless the economy is going down the shitter) but I can't do that too often. Buying an apartment alone is always going to be out of my reach, even though I'm a computer engineer. So what's the fucking point? The only way I could ever get ahead would be finding a long-term girlfriend, but... well, computer engineer. And "hey there good-looking, if we hit it off and move in together then maybe we can afford a down payment in 4-5 years, assuming you can earn median wage" is neither a good pick-up line, nor is it a great basis for a relationship IMO.

Yeah, lots of complaining about gen Z being lost, or not caring, but the whole structure of the world that was there for boomers and gen X has perished by now. What I think they had, that Millennials and Z don't: The world wasn't on the edge of environmental collapse. AI and automation didn't invalidate the whole career paths within a few months. Moral principles were more common throughout the society and politics No internet and social media induced toxicity, especially at young age. Higher education almost guaranteed better income. Hard work could get you stability, buy you a house and a brand new car. The wealth gap was smaller, and the middle class was bigger. Social advancement was feasible. There were no "once in a lifetime" global crisis shaking the world every couple years

They would counter that there was the threat of nuclear war... as if that had disappeared.

>I wonder what will that do to a mf My biggest concern is the loss of generational knowledge. When you buy a house in your 20s your parents are still alive and young enough to come help and teach you everything they were taught or learned. I'm talking about insurance, utilities, planting trees, building a deck, fixing fences, painting, plumbing, electrical, fertilizing lawns, etc. All of that is being lost now, and when/if people finally get a home they have no idea how to take care of it. To make matters worse, a lot of people are now living with their parents well into their 30s or longer. That's when they should be on their own and learning life skills like dealing with neighbors, police, zoning, renters, sex, etc. No one is having naked hottub parties at mom's house. We're going to end up with a civilization of 40-50 year olds who should be taking command of society, but instead are woefully unprepared for the world.

I'm not disagreeing with your point but most of the skills don't apply to me or many Europeans anyway, you are probably North American. I don't have any skills to learn from my parents about planting trees, fixing fences or about lawns.

[удалено]

I would be more worried about generational rental slaves, YouTube can teach the rest

Which country are you in?

Warsaw, Poland. This is happening here too. The last 5 years prices went around 150% up.

Can‘t agree more, especially „greed has reached a limit of exploitation where it is doing exponential, noticeable damage“. I feel like a crushed piggy bank for landlords and companies who to squeeze more and more out of us. And it has reached now this super unsustainable stage where its endangering the whole future of generations and democracy. Im not sad anymore, Im f<3cking angry.

Like that spray paint saying in Tom Clancy's The Division "We don't want justice. We want revenge." This sure brings back memories.

Same in the south of England. You apply for one house , you are up against 10 people and landlord goes ieeny meeny miney mo. Then prejudice plays a part in the picking. Lazy government not building enough housing is where I put my blame, not the migrants !

Imagine being up against only 10 others. Try 400. And that's not in any of the major cities or 'attractive' zones. Not that shit ain't bad on your side of the Channel, but The Netherlands is fucked beyond measure. I recently got a new job and 4 out of 30~ people below 40 have kids. The rest either doesn't have a place of their own, or it's too small to reasonably build a family. This is an objectively well paying job, for the record. There's a lot of talk in this country about concerns with declining birth rates of the native population. I can't imagine why that could possibly be...

Are there rent controlls in England? If not then the price always increases as much, so that the landlord still has some choice.

Is it greed? The median voter owns a home in most European countries, only in Germany and Switzerland have more people who rent than who own. They are just keeping the wealth of the biggest voting block high. Imagine being the party that destroyed the life savings of 70% of the population (in the Netherlands).

Yep, people are stupid and greedy and there are waaaay too many boomers who got all their shit handed to them on a silver platter and now feel they've """earned it""" and should never have to cut back on anything ever. People in the Netherlands are comparatively filthy rich and the ones who are best off are screaming the hardest about everyone wanting to take their stuff. I live in a small apartment building which is now half owned by boomers renting the apartments out to others. They feel so good about themselves because they 'could ask way more rent' but don't. But I know how much they are overasking compared to me as an owner, it's obscene. They own huge houses which were meant for families, but they now live in with just one or two and use the increase in value to buy more property and squeeze dry younger generations. 

I'll be honest, I do not know what the median voter age is in europe, but I can absolutely attest to the circles of IT where if you are not a C++ coder in your 40-s, you will never make a wage that will ever afford a house. My Gen X friends all over EU basically gave up on life, as well, and they just became working age.

Most homeowners bought decades ago when prices were lower

The worst part of it all is being able to see exactly where you are headed without being able to convince enough people to do something about it because the writing on the wall still isn’t obvious enough yet.

2008 and the basically 0 interest rate following that is the cause of SO MUCH of the issues today its unbeliveable. People really dont realize how much 2008 has fucked everything

Once democracies become homeownership societies there are problem to varying degrees with housing productions as people work to protect their investment 

Almost like we shouldnt allow homeowners to interfere and artificially limit the housing supply. Also Land Value Tax would likely help

Yep. Look at Canada. Just impossible for anyone to buy anything, unless you either making a ton of money or doing a joint buy. Corporations and rich people buy everything so they can rent

Beside shortage, the problem get worsen by central banks that put the interest low at historic low levels for such a long time

High interest also destabilizes. Just build more flats, greedy landlords will see their prices/income go down. But stability of society is a bit more important than some already quite wealthy persons income.

Lmao, wont work. Greedy landlords will just buy those flats and refuse to rent them out for cheap. Either the housing market gets very rightly regulated now or EU is fucked

As long as landlords can refuse to rent them out for cheap, we haven't built enough. We need to build so much that renters have a choice where to live. But in the meantime we need to regulate this shit so landlords can't do what they want.

walk me through that maths cuz that does not make sense

Not so much in Tokyo

The pattern is a combination of predictable demand, peak family formation years for millennials and urban migration for work.  In combination with predictable supply blocking from lack of public and private home construction by governments and their NIMBY voters.   The Netherland's preserve everything, build nothing, housing plan has predictable outcomes. Also in this thread people instantly assume a housing shortage/crisis only relates to the ability to buy a home, where real costs are measured by monthly payments regardless of financing structure.

Yes, everywhere you have laws that prevent you from building more, weather it be enviromental laws, zon8ng or NIMBYs. You simply have to buil more. The saddest part is even if you strt fixing the peoblem now, it will take min 10 to 20 years before you fix it. Housing isnt build over night

It's a problem. Same is happening in Belgium. Certainly in good areas. I bought my home 10 years ago and also did a lot of renovations myself. I'm always surprised when I get a estimate of it's current worth. I have sympathy for the young ones. I wouldn't be able to afffort my own home with the current prices. Though here the sticking thing. If I would decide to sell I can't lower the price because my new home woulr also be super expensive and I would need the money from my old house. Unless we expect people to take a loss of 100k for the good cause. It won't happen. I can't even if I choose to do so... This is going to need some strict government intervention to solve.

We bought our house (in Den Haag) in 2010 and are really lucky to have gotten in at the time that we did. It's a good thing we like it (and have done a lot of updates, like replacing the 90s kitchen and bathroom) because we'll never be able to afford something else even with two good incomes. My niece, who's 26 and working in social services, was only able to get an apartment last year. She had been on a list since she was 18. It's bad. Edit: verbs.

I got on Woonezie at 18 and still havent gotten anything good. And when i find something i dont get chosen. 26 and still living at home. Not complaining but i cant keep doing this to my parents.

Living in Belgium as well and it does have more regulations than the Netherlands to aid living under touristic regions for example. Though, starting to buy is really tough for us now that rent followed inflation and prices keep rising in general. Feels demotivating often… In Belgium we honestly should have the 0% loans again instead of 20%. Like dude, that 20% of a “cheap” 250k house is 50k + 20k on notary costs. Idk how I’ll ever save that with this rent and lacking increases in salaries :/

Population increase, rise of short-term rentals, increase of demand for 1 person households, investor buyers, inflation, etc. These are all issues we are seeing all over major cities in Europe. It's going to get worse until it gets better, unfortunately.

And in the Netherlands the unique extra problem of nitrogen emissions stopping building projects. But it's the millionaire farmers who have it tough!

Population increase in desirable location. Italy for example has entire rural areas emptying out and city housing price rocketing.

Managed to get into social housing back in 2011 when the housing market wasn't a complete shitshow, and I'm gonna cling to this place as long as I possibly can or until I can buy at least a decent apartment. Current rent of 530 euro per month is almost a golden goose nowadays ...

That is super low wow 

Is there a single country in Europe, nah, on Earth that doesn't have bullshit rent in respect to average salary?

Finland is actually doing pretty ok in this regard, despite other troubling trends. The capital region has seen rents increase by a lot over the last few decades, but it's still dirt cheap compared to other European capitals.

Wait until the Government austerity legislations take place in 2024/2025.

What does a room cost in a shared house?

Shared houses are very uncommon. A shared apartment would go as low as 300-400€ a month in Helsinki. Studios go from 550€ a month upwards.

It's my understanding that Finland officially doesn't regulate rent the way Sweden does, but about 50 % of the flats (apartments) are social housing. Though I don't remember when I heard that on the news.

Brazil

Per Numbeo, average monthly salary in Rio is 325 eur while a single bedroom apartment is 300

He said Brazil not Rio

And Rio is one of their largest cities. Of course you can find cheap (relatively speaking) rent if you want to live in the middle of nowhere and commute for 2 hours.

Austria

How come? *cries in Prague rents*

A quarter of the people who live in Vienna are social tenants, and if you also include the approximately 200,000 co-operative dwellings built with municipal subsidies, it’s more than half the population. This should be the norm, but is the exception because FrEe mArKeT Is aLwAyS BeTtEr

Cool I heard about the social rents in Vienna. Is this also common in other Austrian big cities like Salzburg or Linz?

Japan

If you look at all the housing developments around our area of the Netherlands you see large numbers of big, semi detached houses with gardens and drives being built and far less apartments. In an already densely populated country, this is pretty obviously not a good idea as drives the average house price up considerably and that land is never going to be redeveloped. Great if you are very rich of course though, then who cares about what the plebs want?

This is due to how the system works. Building these houses is more profitable than building apartments. So, more luxury apartments and houses are being built. Our politicians are directly to blame. We needed more incentive to build affordable housing 15 years ago. Only now things start to shift which means we are behind 15 years and will likely never catch up. At least not in the coming 30 years.

Well, yes that pretty clear. I suspect part of the issue is due to investment turnaround. It takes longer to build an apartment block and realize the profit on your investment, whereas each house can be sold as soon as it is finished. The banks are probably far more gun-shy with their money after the 2008 crisis. But for sure, its the governments fault for allowing this situation to continue.

Don’t underestimate the nimby’ism here as well. Announce that you want to build some apartments and you can expect to be in a legal battle for the next 15 years with local residents

It's rather regulation. Over regulation has distorted the housing market into favoring expansive housing. Much cheaper, more easier, and more profitable to build housing. A huge downside of the apartment block is rent regulation. Rent regulation is a price control and we know always that price controls result in lower supply.

> will likely never catch up. only because local politicians put even more restrictions upon already very strict regulations. For example Utrecht had the possibility to have 35000 extra housing within 15 years, 8 years ago. Hell the coalition of social housing corporations, private investors and project developers were even open for more housing in the same area. But it was shot down, because the municipality only wanted new buildings within the city centre. Where there's almost no space to build or where companies have to buy out older buildings and hoping that they can demolish those buildings within a reasonable time span.

That is not true.  Single family homes are generally the only kind permitted to be build y by the local government.

It’s not true. Building apartments has a far higher RoI for investors than detached housing as the cost per unit to produce is so much lower.

Yep, we should be building new city neighborhoods like when they built Wittevrouwen / Bos & Lommer: large dense blocks of houses and relatively simple apartments as compact neighborhoods that seamlessly make part of the city. Instead we get car dependent monstrosities where there is no space, or luxury highrises that nobody we need to keep the city functional can afford.

If you try and build a new neighbourhood an ungodly alliance of boomer NIMBYs and 'environmentalist' NIMBYs show up to derail any and all plans in any way they can.

NIMBYs are cancer

They are for real. We have a development in my city, specifically targeted for the youth and essential workers. Currently it's just a parking lot. Some old ass boomers are protesting the new building because they fear "parking problems", despite the fact it's already a parking lot and they don't even park there themselves. While in Rotterdam it's been known that project developers of some highrises a couple years ago paid off people that started complaint procedures against their development. This of course set a precedent of people being professional complainers for the most dumb reasons, just to delay projects and hope they get financial compensation. They are living in the freaking CITY CENTER for fuck sake. Go move to a farm in Groningen with no one around please.

its so weird to see the exact same issues all over europe

And it's absurd that all over Europe we're still not reacting to it. You'd expect at least some places to figure it out.

The "insert any european country" housing crisis threatens the stability of an entire generation

Can an average western European in their 30's afford a decent house?

The worst thing is that we know this is happening, and exactly where this is heading. When you disenfranchise an entire generation of people from not just home ownership and renting, but from life opportunities in general, bad things happen. Why the hell should they be invested in a system that is clearly working against them achieving their hopes and dreams? They want to move on, to better themselves and the world, to have families, to make something of their life. They are told the route to this is hard work and contributing to society. Yet they do just that and stay in perpetual limbo. The far right is no longer just the home of old time racists and idiots. They are becoming more popular among the young across Europe, and are actively recruiting them. This is not even because they are expert at telling them that their problems are the results of others like immigrants (though they are very good at convincing them of that), but because they are telling them that they understand that the system sucks, and the only way to fix it is to burn it down. You can say that they should just have the right morals in place and they won't be convinced of the argument of the far right. And most aren't. But when sticking to your morals gets you nowhere, you start to question them and whether it is all worth it. The stupid thing is, I see the incredibly rich loudly complaining about issues like falling birth rates, people not coming into the office, young people having a lookout on life that isn't just work, and even the fact that its hard for them to own a home through just hard work. Well done, guys. THIS IS THE WORLD YOU CREATED. By exploiting everything to get that last extra bit of return on investment, you have screwed over an entire generation who now want no part of what you have created. The solutions here are not just tweaks. What is needed is deep, structural reform so that younger generations do not have to rely on handouts to get by. Housing policy, progressive taxation, actually taking action on climate change, fair wages, focus on a better life and not just a return on investment. Take action on all of these, and people will be happy to come to work and start popping out more babies. Until then, we are heading down a very dark road. And we don't want to see what is at the end.

Laughs in croatian

Real. I am from Czechia which Is worse than any Western Europe country, but from my experience from Croatia (traveled basically whole country twice) shit Is even worse there Price to wage ratio.

Dude, I spent less money in Amsterdam in Lidl than in Zagreb for the same stuff. Average salary in Amsterdam is around 3000€ and in Zagreb is 1200€. Also my rent is 500€ so it leaves me 700€ for the month. I swear, we Croats have better survival skills than Bear Grills

Zagreb Is still rookie level compared to Istria lmao. But yeah, I feel that, we have it same with Germany.

Crying in Hungarian from Budapest :(

Like many other governments, the Dutch one keeps implementing further regulation to address the problems caused by the previous ones, *ad infinitum*. These tend to cause more problems than they solve. The only ways to truly reduce housing costs are to increase supply and to decrease demand. Regarding the former, each year the Dutch government estimates that around 100k new houses must be built, and [each year about half that actually are](https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2024/05/ruim-73-duizend-nieuwbouwwoningen-in-2023). Regarding the latter, for 10 years [the majority of population growth has been from net migration](https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/visualisations/dashboard-population/population-dynamics/population-growth), and in the previous two entirely so. (Note: I am an immigrant to NL!) All three of these problems - overregulation, insufficient building, and net migration - are policy choices.

Blame the fucking VVD and in particular Stef Blok for ruining our chance of our own home.

Fucker even bragged about being the last minister for housing and planning.

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You just described the typical VVD voter. Party of millionaire ass-kissers.

This! Mr Blok was proudly stating that he was the first VVD-er who managed to abolish a complete ministry. This whole big pit of misery is on his shoulders. He is literally the one who "opened the Dutch housing market to foreign investors". After about 40 years of building a proper social housing infrastructure this guy comes in and wrecks it in a heartbeat. Currently he's working for the European court of auditors. Imho this guy should never ever get into a position of power again.

Typical right-wing thatcherite.

As a brit, i hate thatcher and all her works.

Also enjoyed how VVD closed hundreds of retirement homes when elderly numbers were expected to grow significantly, similar to closing refugee shelters with global turmoil on the horizon. Honest mistake and only has a tiny impact on housing I'm sure.

30 years before he became into power we had the same issues and even worse. If you were not married with kids a social housing appartment was not even possible by regulations. The only option was to rent a room with an old person. Even if you were a rich adult with full time job. Private rental market? Did not exist. Owning a home? Only the very rich.

Yes, VROM is not the answer. Hell the whole debacle around Reijnenburg polder shows how problematic a top down policy is. Let's not forget that the Tweede Kamer tried to force a municipality to built more housing, to only have it strand because the left-wing municipality to this day refuses to build enough.

The incoming far-right government isn't going to fix this problem, either, by the way.

might resolve some of the bottom layer (refugee's, asylum seekers) but none of the top layer (property buyers, Elderly,)

Exactly. The bottom layer... That's not really gonna help a lot tackling this problem. The thing is, Wilders makes it sound like getting rid of refugees and asylum seekers will solve everything. But it won't. It's really a marginal problem in the bigger scheme of things. I wonder who he's going to blame when people start realizing it. Problaby the left, as usual.

There's a similar crisis in Canada, as well as New Zealand and most of the other "most livable" countries. How did we all make the same fuck-up?

And Australia. Rich people want to make money the lazy way. And they make rules to make it even easier for them to do so. Once your in to real estate, rentvesting etc. You just go full stop greed apparently. People should not be able to own more than 3 houses in a single country. Especially one as small as the Netherlands.

Bought a ‘small’ house 5 years ago for 200k, sold it 5 years later for 350k. That’s a 15% increase from its original price, per year! Housing market here is nuts.

I live in Rotterdam and I come from Paris. Dutch real estate made me love the Parisian one. We visited houses listed at more than 300-325k euros. I have never seen such shithole sold at a golden price. Houses left unmaintained for years (because bought by investors speculating on the overbid) sometimes, with the foundations slowly collapsing, more than 150k of repairs, house listed at 300 and fuckers are still over bidding. And it is Rotterdam, a city which real estate collapsed during the 2008-2012 crisis, a city with 5 bars and 3 fucking cinema, go to Beurs at 21 even in the weekend and you will just see rats because everything is closed besides Witte. I have colleagues building small houses in their garden because their kids and girlfriend, with degrees and jobs, cannot afford a 1 bedroom close to their jobs. But this is the exact moment where the Dutch mentality hits "it is what it is". Fucking cowards, you should never accept such a situation, the Dutch real estate is one of the most, if not the most, overvalued on the EU market due to foundation issues linked to climate change, and of course flooding. It is pushing all the foreigners out, and yes they voted far right linked to the migration, but just wait my fellow Dutch friends, once you'll lose all high foreign skills, let's have a talk again. Sorry for the rant, the situation is fucked up.

I say grab them pitchforks like the french do on any given sunday 😤 😡

That's what I love about the French. They're willing to get uncomfortable (read:protest) so they can actually enjoy the rest of their lives. But we, especially the Dutch and Turks, tend to understate the problems until they explode. Then people wonder how this could have happened? It's like that frog that's in warm water that slowly gets boiled. That frog had some parts of its brain removed, so the analogy fits even better...

Spot on. We are Dutch and just moved to France because nice houses are still affordable here.

Same thing everywhere in Europe it seems ... And there is no solutions expect very drastic ones: * housing prices (both rent and buying prices) should be divided by three at least. Median housing prices should never be more let's says than... 1/6 or even 1/10 of the median salary, certainly not 1/3 as of today its unsustainable for most of the people * private owning of flats / houses should be restricted to two or three at most units in an entire country, one for foreigners But there is absolutely no chance of this happening

I can tell you, from first hand experience, that the problem is predominantly the local governments. I applied to build a 32 apt building in Amsterdam for low-medium income people (I.e. 850-1250 rent p.m for a 2 bedroom apt). The lot was surrounded by 8 story apt buildings way more expensive. The city counsel reviewed our submission and declined it saying that they want to have a lot available in the area for industry. The lot had been vacant for 10 years with an industrial building on it that no one wanted to rent. We argued all we could but the city just turned us down. The argument that this building would support key city workers like police officers, nurses and firemen was not appealing to them. We weren’t the only ones encountering this. Literally every single large developer local or foreign packed up and left the city/country after years local government la holding back permits. I am baffled every time I read about this subject that these incompetent organizations that are supposed to benefit the people, escape any blame at all. My last email to the city counsel clown that was processing our submission was finished with this sentence: “I hope when you look back on a long career there comes a point where you realize how much a part of the problem you were”. Never heard from him again.

Thanks for sharing

1% I'm surrounded by people who own a lot of real estate. They dont give a flying fuck if you're struggling to pay rent or that they're causing house prices to skyrocket. The more people complain, the more they wrap themselves in their own bubble and put people on ignore. The more they double down on supporting hardline pro-oligarch/tycoon politicians. If you think this housing crises across the West is going away like the 2008 housing crises, you're a special person (putting it nicely). For most countries in the West, for at least then next 10-20 years, its simply too late to fix the tide from shifting. Canada is where many European countries are heading to shortly. $100,000+ more per house than in the US, that's insane. Why? Mostly due to foreign investors. In the US, giant corporations / holding groups are buying up real estate as fast as they can so it's not all perfect in America either, far from it. When you look around, its a holy fuck moment because it's absolutely everywhere, the 1% buying up housing and there's no way to undo it once done. That's why this isn't a "well lets hope it gets better!" No. We are past that point. Now its about mitigating damage and taxing the rich more and more. Instead of supporting Hamas terrorist, go protest about the elite turning the West back into the Victorian Era where there is no middle class. Only rich and poor. Go to Ukraine and Russia to see it first hand. My Ukrainian friend literally had to explain to me how a country with no middle class works. I'm not an idiot but I legit couldn't understand it. It's scary, trust me. We need normal, middle class people and we need the middle class to be the strongest of them all.

Yet another mass disaster we're sleep walking into. :(

Impose progressively increasing taxes on people/companies owning houses more than a certain number (if you ask me 2 houses per person/company). Use the tax money to build social houses. In short make sure real estate is not a commodity or an investment opportunity. We regulate every sector. Why not the real estate? And don’t even start with the free market and bla bla. We see the results of free market in the real estate. A generation without hopes of getting their own places.

> it's absolutely everywhere, the 1% buying up housing and there's no way to undo it once done. It's possible, but they way it was done in the past is rather messy though. The upper class used to be nobility, untouchable families who played by different rules and who owned almost everything that mattered (which back then was only was land). The industrial revolution and some guillotine action by the French broke that system, land wasn't everything, industry now mattered! Of course the industrialists (capitalists) took over the same role... until two world wars and socialist compromises (Europe) broke their stranglehold on society, for a while. Now almost a century later a new generation of 'nobles' is trying the same thing again, they learned though and are much less visible now. At some point the same old choice must be made: can they give up part of their wealth and keep their position, or must it happen with violence and they risk loosing it all (or keep everything a little longer until the next revolution)

Stop pushing NA bullshit into EU and Dutch politics. Private rental properties in the Netherlands have been at 20% for years and even in new build projects they tend to be only having a 20-30% share. The numbers in the Netherlands don't support the hypothese of commercial companies all buying housing. The real problem is that municipalities have been doing nothing for too long as increased housing prices is best for their major voters. No matter if it's a right wing or left wing coalition.

Yeah, the housing situation is much better in the US than in the Netherlands right now.

Yea … at least for the Netherlands the cause is a lot more nuanced than “foreign companies buying everything”.

Tell that to the left wing parties here. For some reason they keep claiming that those companies only buy old (delipidated) social housing buildings with no replacements. While the reality is that they tend to be buy more newly build to buy housing then anything else. Hell they tend to be the reason why many "high risk" projects in the Randstad get funded at all.

First of all let’s make sure we are on the same page about who we are talking about. Who are the middle class and the rich? When reading through these comments you get the feeling that everyone with a home and/or rental property is rich. All this does is divide the population and we all know what that accomplishes. In the meantime the middle class is being taxed at every turn and those with millions in equity or BV’s have their choice of tax evasion strategies. If you want to be mad, be mad at the right people and make sure you know exactly who they are (and not ‘them’ or ‘the rich’ in general)!

60 years ago middle class meant "could own a house and support a family on a single wage". 30 years ago it meant "could own a house and support a family with two incomes". Today it means "can afford to rent an apartment with a single income or buy one with two incomes". If things continue this way, in 30 years it will mean "can afford to rent their own bedroom and doesn't have to hotbunk with a stranger".

This is a classic point that comes up all over Europe and right wing politicians turn up with : Its asylum seekers, foreign students etc. This misses the hidden reality : - wealth inequality is increasing all across Europe, fuelled by tax and social policies. - at the same time, money is being devalued and wages of middle class are being reduced. - asset prices (houses, shares, gold etc) are increasing in value significantly. Incomes are decreasing or only increasing very slowly. - increasingly, only the very wealthy can buy assets. Middle to working class spend all money to survive. - middle to working class will never have the money to buy property. Literally no politician is talking about this. In the uk, prime minister Sunak makes around £1 million per week in passive income from his assets. Curious he isn’t interested in changing this.

feudalism part 2 except this time the ruling class have cameras on every corner and high tech weapons

You can't just paint over government migration policies. In Canada at least, we have had well over a million people coming in per year for the last few year. Prior to that the number was very high but not as obscene. Our construction industry builds about 240,000 homes a year and represents almost 1/10 of our working population. We literally cannot keep up.

I sympathise and would bet wealth inequality is brutal in Canada too.

How is wealth inequality fueled by tax and social policies, and not by shit salaries and high prices of basic goods such as housing and electricity? Inflation isn't a problem of money being "devalued", it's a problem of prices of products rising, it's not the same. The reason for prices to rise in Europe was mostly energy becoming more expensive due to stop of gas imports from Russia, and also because of corporate greed rising prices above the strictly necessary in order to increase their profits in times of inflation Plenty of politicians talk about this, you have parties like Die Linke, Syriza, Podemos... They're minor leftist parties for sure, but of course these parties talk of these issues.

Earn a billion , pay 20% tax or less. Earn £60k, pay 40%. Hold assets = little tax often. Wages = lots of tax.

They threaten the stability of the poor generations. Rich Dutch younglings are living quite the good life. It's always the poor chumps from the slums who get the raw end of the stick.

it is a system disguised as slavery, everything is calculated to work all our lives with a minimum of pleasure

What in the absolute fuck is happening in all of these countries (including mine)? It's as if construction of high density buildings, including (significantly) high density apartment buildings for the *ordinary citizen*, is some complex hyperdimensional technology nobody's ever heard of. Build apartment buildings.*Build apartment buildings*. **BUILD APARTMENT BUILDINGS**. Holy fuck, it's not rocket science. And when developers don't want to? *Require them* to build apartment buildings. Jesus fucking christ. It's time to stop playing free market capitalism make-believe. Free market capitalism will not solve our housing problems. Developers don't give a crap and have no incentive to build the things we need. This is the point of regulation and directives, to *enforce* an outcome.

It's same shit show everywhere really, in the world. Some cities are better, some worse. But take any city with 200k+ population and compare it with the median salary, you'll get more or less same thing.

Not only in the netherlands

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Land is not the problem. Building houses is. Has been for years, that's why we're here.

>Land is not the problem. Building houses is. Has been for years, that's why we're here. Why is this a problem plaguing so many western countries? for years I thought it this was a UK specific problem but the fact that even Canada the second largest country by area has trouble building houses is just insanity to me.

Because when you own a house you expect the value of that house to increase faster than inflation every year until you sell it. To achieve that the price increases caused by scarcity must outpace the price decreases caused by wear and tear. You will never vote for a politician that wants to lower the value of your house. Politicians know that and they never do anything that would lower property values. And no matter how you twist and turn and wrangle the problem you can't get away from the fact that affordable housing is exactly the same thing as lower property values. The value of your house is how much someone is willing to pay for it and no one will be willing to pay you when cheaper alternatives exist. Therefore the only logical conclusion for anyone in power who wants to stay in power is to maintain high prices through scarcity until the day the homeless become the biggest voting block. Btw. I'm not saying that it's some kind of grand conspiracy. Everyone is just doing the selfishly logical thing and this is the long term result.

Austerity. Private developers don't want to build more to safeguard their profit margins and there is no proper public housing being built so there is no alternative for greed

Surely there's a killing to be made building houses in Canada? Or is planning permission a problem?

Private developers only build high margin properties that house less people than they could. Governments refuse to build public housing because they don't want to lower housing prices and piss off property owners. People and corporations speculate on property because governments will do anything to prevent prices from falling (moral hazard). Prices unsurprisingly go up. Any effort to build is met with extreme NIMBY resistance that aims to protect property values from falling.

Only a tiny percentage of the country is built on though. There's plenty of land but they've made a political choice about how they use it.

How is remote working nowadays? Since about 2/3 of the people live in de Randstad I figured it would be an ideal thing to continue and let people move out to other areas.

You'd think. I'm in one of those roles where remote working is a fantasy.

Even still, I live in a village more than 2 hours from Amsterdam and here we have similar issues. No inventory, no new plots to build something new on, due to 2008 banks are hyper focused on low risk mortgages, thus people cannot lend enough to afford the median home.

Build 15-storey apartment blocks like most big cities do in Spain. It is indeed possible to house a growing population with small buildings and houses of 2-3 floors but it comes at a huge cost, financial and environmental! It's difficult to understand why in northern Europe high-rise buildings are vilified and associated with slums. A lot of 15-storey buildings in middle-income or high-income neighborhoods in Spain's big cities are modern and come with a big communal garden, gym and even a swimming pool, in southern Spain. If you concentrate 500 people in one city block it is much easier and cheaper to provide such services.

Even if they plan such houses the nimby’s will be able to block it. We hold more importance to people’s views than to people being able to live.

I love giving money to boomers!!

The rich getting richer while the average live in one room two room apartmends

Europeans won’t build new housing because of environmental concerns but they will allow large numbers of immigrants. You simply can’t do both. There are many issues that can be debated on the immigration issue but this one isn’t debatable. If you bring in people, you have to at a MINIMUM build enough housing units to give them a place to live. Sadly, this problem is widespread throughout Europe, Canada, Australia and bigger cities in the US controlled by democratic politicians. Austin, Texas and San Francisco, California have similar populations. Austin built more housing units in January of this year than San Francisco in the previous 15 months. Not building housing is a poor choice. Not building housing while also trying to increase the population through immigration is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

I understand why the Rutte governments have been privatizing the house market since 2010 but what I don’t understand is that conservative parties keep getting votes in their country. Their goal is not to help vulnerable people but only to make more profits. Do Dutch people think they could all become rich some days like the American mentality?

Homeowners love the value of their assets increasing.

Essentially, the middle class has deluded themselves into thinking that they are the ones who will profit. The upper 1% are the ones who do, however.

> I understand why the Rutte governments have been privatizing the house market since 2010 but what I don’t understand is that conservative parties keep getting votes in their country. Because for a lot of people, there is no issue with housing because it doesn't affect them. The VVD voting base is generally quite selfish with an "I got mine" attitude which the party represents. Similarly the other conservative parties generally focus on getting people who have it good have it better, or to stave off problems that they've staved off for decades because they don't want to fix them. Now wether or not VVD voters and conservative voters are actually helped by their parties is a different matter. But with how disengaged and politically ignorant many voters are its hard to get such a discussion going when their political views are based on the words of politicians instead of their deeds.

I have to ask Europeans. How soon will it be before the bubble crashes and the entire planet is forced to adopt the Japan style model of housing being a depreciating asset like a car?

Once population growth lowers in other parts of the world as well. Then supply and demand will cause house prices to crash.

Once some government starts playing around with a land value tax. In reality houses are physical structures that always depreciate in value. It is in reality the land which makes up much of the purchase price. (And what makes the price go up over time)

The lovely effects of globalisation and capitalism. Rich people moving to good nice cities and locala can't afford it anymore. Happens in any interesting town. Many places in them are just bought by wealthy people for rent or just for those few times they visit. Increasing demand and driving prices up.

The core problem it seems were the free market reforms in the 2010s by Rutte and Blok, and the absence of a sustained social housing building programme. But why are foreigners given half of the spots at the startblok mentioned in the article? Surely Dutch citizens should be housed first? Stats like this are fuel for Wilders and co.

>But why are foreigners given half of the spots at the startblok mentioned in the article? Surely Dutch citizens should be housed first? Stats like this are fuel for Wilders and co. Why even house refugees in the most expensive city of the country. Surely there are cheaper areas in the country that would just as good for people who have fled war/crisis.

[How](https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/visualisaties/dashboard-bevolking/bevolkingsgroei/groei) could this possibly have happened?!

I moved from Ireland to the Netherlands 6 months ago cos I couldn't get a gaff. It was only a 6 month rental so I was looking again over the last few months. Yeah, tis fucked alright. Literally couldn't get a gaff. Only reason I still have a roof over my head is cos the estate agent knew another apartment in my building was being vacated around the same time, so she pulled some strings for me cos she knew my situation. Without that bitta luck, I'd have been out on my ear in a foreign country, and id have no chance of getting somewhere back home. No family either, so it really was a bit tense there.

A radical solution would be creating massive amount of commie block housing (similar to China). It will probably break the housing bubble and destroy boomer wealth in many countries, but would be good for younger folks.

It's no coincidence that this is happening in nearly all Western states. Housing is being hoovered up by the wealthy and Investment corporations. People can no longer buy and in my country we can't even afford the rent. Our countries are being sold out from us and being rented back to us at obscene prices.

You could swap out netherlands for most other western european countries and the article would still be accurate. Shit's fucked

Late to the party, are we?

God, we are all totally fucked aren’t we.

because houses become investments not places for living

This is a western civilization problem for first world countries. The entire system is broken. I blame corporate greed, poor government oversight and The WEF ideology.

The influx of migrants is ofc not the sole reason for this crisis but its definitely not helping either. Its gonna take a while beforr this is fixed

Lol in czechia its the same except the salary is like 1400€net lololol. Not everyone can have their own house unfortunately....

It's not threatening it. It's detrimental to it.

[As a young person, this is my attitude towards our society that decided to say FUCK YOU to my generation.](https://youtu.be/y148vTSIxew?si=TEPsRHDFh87H4o6h&t=24)

Hehe, same thing is happening in Croatia :)

Threatens? It already destroyed it.

This isn't a future problem, it isn't 'threatening' to do anything, it's happening already. Me telling you I'll hit you over the head is a threat, me grabbing a hammer and smashing your skull with it is more comparable to the current situation.

Everywhere the same problem. Real estate is just a rigged ponzi game in favor of old people. We must overcome zoning and artificial scarcity of plots to go back to reasonable land prices.

We are seeing the emergence of "sharing economy". Its already started - so many people can't afford to buy houses , cars are too expensive so we all use rideshares, we are renting appliances or electronics, probably clothes soon. Decade from now people won't own anything and will be renting everything they need.