ANP
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NOS News•today, 11:41
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The market for holiday homes and recreational real estate has been on the rise since the corona pandemic. Private investors in particular were successful in this segment, according to its own research by the Financieele Dagblad in collaboration with the Land Registry. The growth of this market also benefits criminals, experts warn.
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Over the past two years, private investors have spent 1.6 billion euros on holiday homes and recreational land. The market for houses has even doubled: about 14,000 holiday homes were sold during the pandemic, for an average price of 182,000 euros each.
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This concerns transactions that are registered on own land and on land with leasehold. Sales of mobile homes and chalets on rental land are not listed in the land register, director Geert Dijks of the Hiswa-Recron trade association explains to the FD.
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Since the corona outbreak, the Dutch have come to appreciate a holiday in their own country more. Private investors buy land and houses to take advantage of it.
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Market growth is also fueled by low mortgage rates. In addition, some of the investors fled the regular housing market because their yield decreased due to stricter government regulations. For example, their transfer tax increased from 2 to 8 percent, so that a house at the bottom yields less in the rental or sale.
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‘Similar to selling a car’
Dijks van Hiswa-Recron says that it is mainly private individuals that trade among themselves in holiday real estate. “That happens at the kitchen table, and is comparable to buying a car,” he tells the FD.
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It often concerns wealthy people who are looking for “the new gold”, says professor of real estate economics at Tilburg University, Dirkk Brounen in the newspaper. The composition of the group interested in holiday homes, building plots and caravan pitches has changed. Previously it was mainly the elderly, but nowadays this group also includes entrepreneurs and wealthy young families.
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Holiday homes and recreational grounds can be used for your own holiday, but can also be rented out. This explains the growing interest of traditional pawnbrokers in this market. The fact that the government is introducing stricter rules to reduce the prices of private sector homes also contributes to this. Those rules will not apply to holiday homes, the FD writes.
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Cause for concern
The growth of the holiday real estate market also has a downside: due to inadequate regulations, it is a magnet for criminal money. The risk of money being laundered with the purchase of homes at holiday parks is high.
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Money laundering researcher Joras Ferwerda of Utrecht University tells the FD that the purchasing boom is cause for concern. Bad money moves to the holiday real estate market, he says, because there is little supervision. “At a park, the control lies with a private party, instead of with the local police officer,” he explains.
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The money laundering risk is also encouraged by the high turnover rate, which is up to three times higher than in the regular housing market. During the pandemic, 10,000 transactions per year took place at holiday parks, two-thirds of which involved cottages.
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Sudden increases in value are unclearly substantiated, making it easier for money launderers to invest money, Ferwerda told the FD.
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Cashbetalingen
A recent report by the Regional Information and Expertise Center East Netherlands also stated: suspicions of criminal investments in holiday parks. The report pointed to the absence of a registration obligation and the possibility of cash payments.
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Police figures, which De Telegraaf wrote about last month, showed that in the past five years hundreds of suspicious transactions are done at holiday parks. These purchases and sales of houses have been investigated by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the National Unit, a part of the police that investigates and combats money laundering.
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