Sell-off of rental homes in the Netherlands spreads to higher-end market segments

The unregulated housing sector in the Netherlands contracted once again in the second quarter of 2026, with 761 more rental homes leaving the market than entering it. A key driver is the continued sale of rental properties by private landlords. What initially affected the mid-market segment has now spread to higher-priced parts of the unregulated housing sector. These are the findings of an analysis by housing platforms Pararius and Huurwoningen.nl. At the same time, the available supply continues to shift towards the upper end of the market. More than four in ten homes in the unregulated housing sector (41 percent) now command monthly rents above €2,000. Meanwhile, the average rent per square metre increased by 4.7 percent compared with a year earlier, outpacing both house price growth and inflation.

Number of available rental properties

In the second quarter of 2026, 11,389 homes in the unregulated housing sector were newly listed, while 12,150 were withdrawn from the market. As a result, the number of new listings was 6.3 percent lower than the number of homes withdrawn from the market, leaving prospective tenants with 761 fewer homes to choose from. A year earlier, the opposite was true, with more homes coming onto the market than being let during the second quarter of 2025.

Average number of responses per listing

In the second quarter of 2026, a home in the unregulated housing sector attracted an average of 27 responses, down almost 52 percent from the 56 recorded in the same period a year earlier.

The decline is partly explained by changes in the composition of the available supply. Fewer homes are now available in the most affordable part of the unregulated housing sector, leaving prospective tenants with fewer properties to apply for.

Pararius defines the price range between the liberalisation threshold (€1,228.07 since 1 January 2026) and €1,500 per month as the most affordable segment of the unregulated housing sector. It is also the part of the market under the greatest pressure. Although this segment accounted for just 21.8 percent of available homes in the second quarter, it attracted 35.6 percent of all responses. A year earlier, it represented 27.4 percent of supply while attracting a virtually identical 35.8 percent of responses. In other words, supply has shrunk markedly, while demand has remained unchanged, further widening the imbalance between the two.

Demand is also strong in the €1,500 to €2,000 segment. These homes accounted for 37.1 percent of supply but attracted 41.4 percent of all responses. A year earlier, this price bracket represented 33.8 percent of supply, while its share of responses was virtually unchanged at 41.3 percent. Supply has therefore increased, but demand has not shifted accordingly.

The shift in supply towards more expensive homes is evident across the market. In the second quarter of 2026, 41 percent of all homes in the unregulated housing sector were advertised at rents above €2,000 per month, compared with 38.8 percent a year earlier. Yet the share of responses directed at this segment remained virtually unchanged, edging up only from 22.9 percent to 23.1 percent. While the supply of higher-priced homes has continued to grow, demand remains concentrated in the lower price brackets.

Homes in the unregulated housing sector were advertised for an average of 20 days in the second quarter of 2026, two days longer than a year earlier.

Pressure on the Dutch rental market

To measure the balance between supply and demand in the unregulated housing sector, Pararius uses a market tightness indicator. The indicator combines four key factors: the total number of homes available, the inflow of new rental listings, the average time properties remain on the market and the number of responses each home receives.

In the second quarter of 2026, the market tightness indicator stood at 0.89, up from 0.32 a year earlier. While this points to a slight easing in market pressure, the unregulated housing sector remains severely out of balance. A score of 0.89 still reflects a clear landlord's market, and the threshold of 5, the point at which the market begins to approach equilibrium, remains a long way off. In other words, the unregulated housing sector remains structurally tight.

Average rent vs. required gross income

New tenants who moved into a home in the unregulated housing sector in the second quarter of 2026 paid an average monthly rent of €1,882, an increase of 3.1 percent compared with a year earlier. Because landlords typically require tenants to earn at least three times the monthly rent, the minimum gross monthly income needed to rent an average home has now risen to €5,648, up from €5,477 a year earlier.

Two years ago, in the second quarter of 2024, the average monthly rent stood at €1,557. Since then, rents have increased by almost 21 percent. Over the same period, the gross monthly income required to rent an average home has risen from €4,672 in 2024 to €5,477 in the second quarter of 2025 and €5,648 in the second quarter of 2026, an increase of almost €1,000 in just two years.

The Pararius Rental Price Index (PRI)

The Pararius Rent Index compares developments in rents with changes in house prices and inflation, using 2021 as its base year. In the second quarter of 2026, rents per square metre increased by 4.7 percent compared with a year earlier. That once again outpaced both the owner-occupied market, where house prices rose by 3.9 percent over the same period, and inflation, which stood at 3.3 percent.

Since 2021, house prices have increased by 44.7 percent, compared with 33.7 percent for rents and 27.9 percent for inflation. For many years, rent growth lagged behind both house price growth and inflation. However, this marks the third consecutive quarter in which rents have risen faster than house prices on an annual basis. Since the first quarter of 2025, rent growth in the unregulated housing sector has also consistently outpaced inflation.

Shift from rental to owner-occupied market

Since the Affordable Rent Act (Wet betaalbare huur) came into force on 1 July 2024, private landlords have increasingly sold homes that were previously let. Transaction data from the Dutch Land Registry (Kadaster) shows that, in the second quarter of 2026, former rental properties accounted for 5.6 percent of all home sales nationwide.

The composition of those sales is now shifting towards the higher end of the market. Since the first full quarter following the introduction of the Affordable Rent Act, the share of sold-off homes in the mid-market rental segment has fallen from 25.1 percent in the third quarter of 2024 to 18.8 percent in the second quarter of 2026. Over the same period, the share of homes renting for more than €2,000 a month increased from 18.2 percent to 26.6 percent. Higher-priced homes now account for a larger share of rental property sales than the mid-market segment.¹

Two legislative changes are driving this trend from different directions. The Affordable Rent Act reduced the maximum rents that can be charged for part of the rental market, making letting less financially attractive for many private landlords. At the same time, changes to the Box 3 wealth tax have increased the tax burden on rental properties. Landlords are taxed on the value of a let property as of the 1 January valuation date, based on a deemed return that does not reflect actual rental income. This helps explain why rental property sales consistently peak in the fourth quarter. In both the fourth quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025, former rental homes accounted for 7.9 percent of all home sales nationwide, compared with between 5 and 6 percent in the other quarters.

In the regulated segment, these two policy changes reinforce one another. Lower rental income combined with a higher tax burden has made letting significantly less attractive, prompting many private landlords to sell. In the higher-priced parts of the unregulated housing sector, where rent regulation does not apply, the increased tax burden appears to be the main driver. The sell-off is therefore spreading across the market: the Affordable Rent Act triggered the initial wave in the regulated segment, while the Box 3 reforms are increasingly driving sales in the higher-priced parts of the unregulated housing sector.

Regional differences remain substantial. Amstelveen recorded the highest share of former rental homes among all residential property sales, at 13.3 percent. Amsterdam followed with 9.3 percent and Rotterdam with 9.1 percent. Hilversum (8.6 percent), Haarlem (8.2 percent), Maastricht (8.1 percent), The Hague and Groningen (both 7.9 percent), and Eindhoven and Leiden (both 7.7 percent) also recorded relatively high shares. At the other end of the spectrum, former rental homes accounted for just 1.5 percent of transactions in Zoetermeer and 2.3 percent in Nieuwegein, reflecting the historically limited size of the private rental market in those municipalities.

Average rent per square metre by property type

In the second quarter of 2026, tenants in the unregulated housing sector paid an average of €20.94 per square metre, 4.7 percent more than a year earlier. Average rents varied considerably by property type. Apartments commanded €22.32 per square metre on average, compared with €16.68 for family homes.

Rent growth also differed between the two categories. The average price per square metre for apartments increased by 5.1 percent year on year, compared with 4.2 percent for family homes. A year earlier, average rents stood at €21.24 and €16.00 per square metre respectively. Apartments typically command higher rents per square metre because they are generally smaller than family homes, making the price per square metre comparatively higher.

Delivery types in the Netherlands

Pararius distinguishes three delivery types: shell², upholstered³ and furnished⁴. In the second quarter of 2026, upholstered homes accounted for the largest share of the unregulated housing sector, at 46.6 percent. Furnished homes made up a further 45.8 percent, while shell properties represented just 7.6 percent of the market.

Furnished homes also commanded the highest rents. New tenants paid an average of €24.31 per square metre, compared with €21.72 for upholstered homes and €18.59 for shell properties.

Rental price developments in Dutch cities

The capital Amsterdam remains the most expensive city in the Netherlands for renting a home in the unregulated housing sector. In the second quarter of 2026, new tenants paid an average of €28.69 per square metre in the capital. It was followed by Amstelveen (€25.10) and Hoofddorp (€23.87). At the other end of the market, the lowest average rents per square metre were recorded in Enschede (€14.95) and Zwolle (€15.21).

Rent growth varied across the other four largest cities. In Rotterdam, the average rent reached €22.79 per square metre, up 7.8 percent year on year. The Hague recorded an average of €22.42 (+5.9 percent), while Utrecht saw a more modest increase to €21.61 (+0.7 percent). Although Eindhoven remained the least expensive of the five largest cities at €20.25 per square metre, it recorded the strongest annual growth, with rents rising by 11.9 percent. Amsterdam, by contrast, saw the slowest increase, at 2.6 percent.

The strongest rent increases were recorded outside the country's largest cities. In Helmond, average rents per square metre rose by 21.0 percent compared with a year earlier, followed by Rijswijk (+18.2 percent) and Hoofddorp (+16.8 percent). These are generally smaller rental markets, where a relatively small number of lettings can have a greater impact on average rent levels than in larger cities.

Click here and here for an overview of price developments in Dutch cities.

Provinces

At provincial level, Noord-Holland remains by far the most expensive rental market, with an average rent of €25.72 per square metre. It is followed by Zuid-Holland (€21.57) and Utrecht (€19.84). At the other end of the scale, Friesland (€14.33) and Drenthe (€14.55) remain the least expensive provinces, and the only ones where average rents are below €15 per square metre.

Rent growth varied considerably across the country during the second quarter of 2026. Flevoland and Noord-Brabant recorded the strongest annual increases, at 9.6 percent and 9.5 percent respectively, followed by Zuid-Holland with 8.1 percent. Drenthe was the only province to record a decline, with average rents per square metre falling by 2.6 percent. In Utrecht, despite remaining one of the country's more expensive rental markets, rents increased by just 0.4 percent over the year.

Click here for an overview of price developments in Dutch provinces.

About Pararius

As the Netherlands' largest independent housing platform, Pararius has been tracking developments in the Dutch unregulated housing sector for many years. The figures in this Rental Report are based on homes listed and withdrawn through Pararius by professional market participants. These are properties that were genuinely available for rent and for which information on rent levels, property characteristics and listing duration is available. Figures on the sell-off of rental homes are based on transaction data from the Dutch Land Registry (Kadaster), which identifies the share of homes sold that were previously rental properties.

The data is continuously updated with new listings and completed lettings, ensuring that the Rental Report provides a timely and representative picture of the Dutch unregulated housing sector. Published every quarter, the report is based on anonymised listing data. A detailed explanation of the definitions and methodology used is provided in the methodology section.

Click here for a detailed explanation of all calculations.