Housing statistics

Housing statistics 

Early days of the new year, so it's time for the statistics of the previous year. Concerning the built environment, the Dutch news is that house sales have continued to increase but less spectacularly, so specialists expect that it will soon even out. There have been so many sales recently that in many municipalities there are few houses available for sale and mortgage rates are expected to increase. By the way, everyone seems happy that house prices have increased once again.

These subjects have been integral parts of the national psyche as long as I can remember. With the Dutch system of mortgaged house ownership, it's not surprising that mortgage rates and conditions are important. Mortgage debt levels determine quite a lot for both the individual and the whole society. On the other hand, people do not seem to realise what growing housing prices for the entire building stock mean. If they keep going up, it's good - that's the general tenet and it's worrying that nobody seems to challenge its sanity.

As for buying and selling houses, real estate agents used to say that the average Dutch person moves house every seven years, not always for practical reasons like family extensions or job changes. It seemed like a self-stimulating system: let's buy each other's houses, especially as soon as more houses come on the market. Aspiration, advancement and improvement are apparently much more important than the cost and trouble involved - or is it simply that people get bored with what they have and go shopping for houses like they do for clothes?