 in one of these areas, they cannot let it out for the first four years. While not technically a 'ban', it works like one by rendering any property vulnerable to the new rules a bad investment. In 2022 – the first year the ban was introduced – the number of properties bought by investors shrunk by 23 percentage points and first-time buyer purchases rose by 14 percentage points, according to a major study into the crackdown by the Erasmus School of Economics in Rotterdam. The ban also did not hit house prices, which rose by a nominal 0.1pc rise in neighbourhoods where it was introduced, compared with those where it was not. Nearly every political party praised the ban, I'm told, calling it a great success after years of lobbying on behalf of would-be homeowners who felt they were competing with investors for affordable housing. Narsingh Balwan){kind=link}
The Dutch have launched wide-ranging crackdowns on the buy-to-let sector, but renters are paying the price
“Landlords have no friends in politics anymore,” Tjeerd Sijtema, one of Rotterdam’s 15,000 civil servants, tells me.
Last year, city officials made Dutch history when they became the Netherlands’ first lawmakers to introduce a ban on landlords buying properties to let.
Red-rimmed signs warding off landlords were erected in 16 of Rotterdam’s 71 neighbourhoods – where around a third of its housing stock resides.
Smug-looking faces shaped like houses stare down at residents who cycle past it in quick succession. Above read the loaded words: “We are working on a healthy housing market here.”