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As a single starter, it is increasingly difficult to find a house to buy. Not only is there little supply, the prices of homes also continue to rise. The average starter should include an average annual salary (€38,000) when purchasing a first home. And that makes the position of first-time buyers in the housing market worse and worse.
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This is apparent from research by comparison site Independer. They have issued a so-called ‘Eigengeldkaart’, which shows how much own money a starter must bring per municipality. A single starter with an average income (€38,000 per year) has to contribute the same amount on average to acquire a 60m2 owner-occupied home.
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And that is double compared to three years ago. The number of municipalities where you have a chance as a starter without your own money has also fallen sharply. Where in 2019 you still had a good position in 250 municipalities, this is now only the case in 160 municipalities.
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And that problem does not only arise in the Randstad. For example, starters in Breda and Den Bosch have to bring more than 80,000 euros of their own money, and in Nijmegen about 40,000 euros.
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Starters: “Wonder if I can still buy a house at all”
The same survey showed that 8 out of 10 first-time buyers (78%) are unsure whether they will ever buy a home again. “That is an incredibly bleak picture,” says Marga Lankreijer-Kos of Independer. “But it is certainly justified if you look at the amounts that they have to save together to be able to buy a home.”
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Overbidding is the norm, but not included in this calculation
Any additional costs due to overbidding are not included in the card, even though overbidding has long been the norm in practice. Three quarters of the homes are outbid, with an average of about 8% of the asking price. For a two-ton house, this is an amount of 16,000 euros.
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“We see every day that tens of thousands of euros are being outbid. And of course you should also take that bit of outbidding as your own money,” says Marga Lankreijer-Kos.
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“Starters are doubly duped”
Overbidding is not entirely without risk. The value of your home is determined by an appraiser. And that amount is the maximum mortgage you can get for the house. Everything above that, you have to pay out of your own pocket.
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Lankreijer-Kos: “In half of the municipalities you already have to invest a lot of your own money, but you also have to reserve a bit for that overbidding. Then you are almost doubled as a starter.”
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Division in the housing market
According to Peter Boelhouwer, professor of housing market policy at TU Delft, the high house prices are due to the low mortgage interest rate. Low interest rates allow you to borrow more money, but because there are not enough homes, there is a lot of competition and prices are being pushed up.
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And this creates a dichotomy between homeowners – whose home is increasing in value by an average of about 6000 euros per month – and first-time buyers, who find it increasingly difficult to cope with the ever-rising prices.
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Now the mortgage rate slowly rising again† That sounds good, because then house prices would also fall. But according to the professor, this is not of much use to starters. After all, if interest rates rise, you can also get less mortgage. The house prices are then lower, but you can also get a less expensive home.
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Accommodating starters
To accommodate starters, there are numerous initiatives to let them borrow more. For example, you have starter mortgages, with which you can get an extra amount on your mortgage. Or a so-called expensive rental mortgage, whereby tenants in the free sector are allowed to borrow their high rent in the long term to pay the mortgage costs.
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However, Boelhouwer wonders whether these are good solutions. This drives up the prices even further. This allows starters to meet the high prices, so that the increases are not stopped.
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According to the professor, the ultimate solution lies primarily in building new homes. He also argues in favor of reducing the differences between first-time buyers and homeowners.
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This can be done, for example, by levying tax on the equity when selling a home. Putting this money into support for starters completes the circle. This could somewhat straighten the proportions on the housing market.
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