Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht to account for 27% of new homes

Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht will account for more than a quarter of the Netherlands' new housing construction in the coming years, according to a study by the Dutch Land Registry (Kadaster). Apartments are expected to make up a growing proportion of new homes, but their average size is likely to decrease slightly. The research covers properties that have already been approved for construction or are currently being built.

The four largest Dutch cities accounted for 18 percent of new housing construction over the past five years, but that figure is projected to increase to 27 percent in the coming years, according to the Kadaster.

Housing construction is currently concentrated in the Randstad and the southern province of Noord-Brabant. Within Noord-Brabant, much of the development is taking place around Eindhoven, Tilburg, Breda, and Den Bosch.

Apartments are expected to make up 75 percent of new homes built in the Netherlands in the coming years, up from around 50 percent over the past five years. Their share of newly built owner-occupied homes is also projected to grow significantly, from 17 to 42 percent.

At the same time, new apartments are getting smaller. While 22 percent of apartments built ten years ago measured more than 90 square meters, only 13 percent of those planned for the coming years are expected to exceed that size.

Residential developments are also becoming denser in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague. The average number of apartments per building in the four cities is projected to increase from 15 a decade ago to 38 in the coming years.

The trend toward smaller homes also applies to single-family houses. Some 22 percent of those still to be built will measure less than 100 square meters, compared with just 9 percent of homes built five to ten years ago.