Does it sometimes seem as if all your mates are jumping on the bandwagon and buying a home and you are still stuck in your rented flat with the creaky floors? Sometimes buying a home makes more sense, but not always. Here are a few key things to think about.
The housing market, particularly in the big Dutch cities, is rarely out of the news at the moment – soaring prices, lack of choice, changes to the mortgage rules – you might consider yourself lucky in your rental flat, dodgy plumbing and all.
After all, the greatest advantages of renting a home are flexibility and the lack of risk. You can come and go whenever you want, you’re not responsible for major maintenance, and you don’t have to worry about what would happen if the value of your property goes down.
Of course, this comes with a price – literally. Renting in the Netherlands is not cheap and depending on where you are, you could be worse off financially in a rental property. A three-room flat in Amsterdam’s Buitenveldert district will cost you around €1,900 a month in rent, but if you bought the same property, it could be as much as €700 a month cheaper – and that is taking all the bills into account as well. Check out more comparisons here.
Above all, the rent you pay helps your landlord beef up his investments and does nothing to help you build up a nest egg.
Written by Expat Mortgage Platform
