Gap between buyers and tenants widening on Dutch housing market: ABN Amro

The divide between buyers and renters in the housing market is growing, ABN Amro said in a new report. According to the bank’s experts, housing has become more affordable across the board in recent years. However, it is primarily existing homeowners who benefit. First-time buyers and young tenants benefit much less. In some regions, particularly in the big cities, they are actually worse off.

In recent years, the share of income spent on housing has been structurally higher for tenants in the private sector than for homeowners, ABN Amro calculated. Private sector tenants spent 28 to 38 percent of their income on housing, compared to 20 to 28 percent for homeowners.

This proportion of income spent on housing declined significantly for homeowners between 2019 and 2025, allowing them to spend an extra 2 to 3 percent of their net income on other things. This is partly due to homeowners building up an advantage because their incomes typically rise over the years while their mortgage costs remain relatively stable.

At the same time, young tenants and first-time buyers, in particular, are hit hardest by rising rents and home prices. According to figures from the bank, first-time buyers saw less improvement. In the big cities, they are even spending more of their income on housing than in 2019. The figures are slightly different for tenants, but there, too, it is striking that young tenants are worse off than older ones.

ABN Amro observes income disparities between the various groups. “We see that there is a significant income gap between the private rental sector and the owner-occupied market. As a result, the transition from renting to buying is becoming increasingly difficult,” ABN Amro economist Mike Langen said. “Due to high home prices, first-time buyers have to bring more equity.”

He further notes that younger buyers and tenants only manage their “seemingly stable or declining housing costs” because they have, on average, moved into smaller homes. “When living space is taken into account, they are actually paying increasingly more per square meter.”