Housing market boiled dry: “There will always be a scarcity in Amsterdam”
In the first quarter of this year, sales were 42.5% less than in the same quarter last year. After boiling over, you can now speak of boiling dry.
In the first quarter of 2022, 43,923 homes were sold in Amsterdam, the lowest number in six years. Jerry Wijnen, chairman of Makelaarsvereniging Amsterdam, can explain why the housing market has boiled dry: “We all had corona and then Ukraine came, so there were a lot of people who did not even take action”
There has always been a shortage of supply, but due to the pandemic and the war, people became more hesitant, who can still afford it, to buy a house. The result is also that homes that are listed for a great deal on Funda, such as an overview house of 240 square meters in the Rivierenbuurt for 2 million euros, will remain unsold for the time being. “An absolute prime location in the South”, expensive-houses expert Erik Rezelman reads out the ad, “if you even turn around, we used to be this neighborhood in Warsaw!”
“If people can pay less, house prices will also fall”
In the meantime it is war but the interest has grown from 1.5 to not almost only percent. Rezelman: “The good thing is that because of the rise in interest rates people can borrow less and if people can pay less, house prices will also fall.” According to Wijnen, that price drop is possible, but the chance is very small: “We have few homes and Amsterdam will always remain a city where many people live.”
Perspective
According to Wijnen, the brokers see that more homes will come on the market in the spring. “We see a trend again, a kind of catch-up, in the first quarter.” So, according to him, the current moment also offers opportunities, for those who can imagine it: “I don’t dare expect that to be the question. I don’t expect that there will always be a scarcity in Amsterdam.”
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