Zoekt u een huis?

It’s been quite a while now searching high and low for houses in Utrecht and North Holland area without any upshot whatsoever. I’m basically looking in and around Amsterdam and Utrecht, although I prefer Utrecht because it’s the wooded part of the country and I love being surrounded with trees. In addition, the character of Utrecht’s suburbs speaks to me more compared to the windy and barren feel of the North Holland swamps. But, helaas, I’m finding it very hard to find something that I like along my earmarked budget.

Take for example, this 142-square meter house (considered to be already big in Dutch standards; houses and apartments here are small!) in Utrecht below is priced at a €785K. A quick translation in US$ would be a whopping $1.155M!

In other parts of the world, for this price you can get a huge mansion with an equally huge entertainment park. If I were to buy this house in neighboring Germany and Belgium, I would get this 20%-40% cheaper, even in prime location.

Real estate prices in the Netherlands are too high. Not surprising really as this is a small country with a high population density problem - indeed a problem as housing and traffic is a major pain in the neck here.

Anyway, that is not the budget I am looking for, but for couples moving on to a new phase in their lives (this is the middle age settled bracket group) looking for a free-standing house at least with 150-square meters and a yard space in nearby Utrecht and Amsterdam would cost a minimum €450K (about $662K) investment. Plus add the VAT + other fees in there would make the total investment jump just over half a million Euros. The downside with this price range is the market itself since the demand is higher than the supply. Ultimately, the stream of buyers out there (2 income earners have recently surge up in this country) who can afford a mortgage in this price bracket (mortgages are determined by the salary, and of course cash upfront), may not be a lot, but they are definitely there... lurking in Funda.nl or Jaap.nl.

So okay, let’s say, I go check outside the Ranstad border – Ranstad is the urban civilization ring of the Netherlands that is composed of the 4 big cities namely Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam and The Hague, then my choices get better! Moreover, I get more value for my money too! But, unfortunately work with better pay is in Amsterdam and commuting to and fro these places would be at most 2 ridiculous hours during peak hours and 1 hour during off peak hours, both one way.

I can however get a similar type and quality house like the above foto in Almere, just a few minutes from Amsterdam, for under or just over the half million mark but then as many locals would say --- maar ja, je woont in Almere... er is niets in Almere... het is een hele saai stadje.

On top of that, I refuse to invest and live in a tussenwoning, hoekwoning, and 2-onder-1 kap. Seriously, there is a shortage of stand-alone houses in this country!!!

SIGH.

Anywho, to a certain extent I am waiting for the credit and housing crisis to hit the Netherlands (strange wish I know, ha-ha, but I surely can profit and benefit from low housing prices) but it looks like, amidst all these muddled speculations, it is never going to ever happen? The Dutch financial epidermis layer seems to be quite strongly sealed at the moment. Or could there be a crack somewhere?