House prices are climbing in greener provinces

Despite the corona crisis, house prices are still breaking record after record with the largest price explosions moving outside the Randstad. In provincial cities and municipalities in green areas, price increases have been much stronger in the past year.

This is evident from a quarterly report from data company Calcasa, which keeps track of house prices per municipality. Of all municipalities with more than 5,000 owner-occupied homes, house prices rose the most in Groningen last year, namely by no less than 11.6%. In Amsterdam the price increase was the smallest with ‘only’ 5.7%. ‘That has been the opposite for years. Although peripheral municipalities and more provincial cities have been on the rise for some time, the housing market now seems to be really changing, ‘says Tijs Pellemans, co-director at Calcasa.

The fact that the madness in the housing market is moving to the more provincial cities and municipalities in the countryside will partly be because the ceiling seems to have been reached in the Randstad. For many people, the big cities have become unaffordable due to these price increases. As a result, they move to other municipalities, increasingly inland, which in turn drives up prices there. ‘The countryside is catching up,’ says Pellemans.

It is striking that single-family homes in provinces such as Groningen, Flevoland and Noord-Brabant in particular gained considerable value. Because people are increasingly able to work from home (especially during corona), people can also live further from their work.

The migration from the city is reflected in the number of relocations, says Calcasa, based on figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics. In the four large cities, the population decreased by no less than 22,885 last year due to relocations to smaller municipalities. This trend was already underway before corona, but the pandemic seems to be reinforcing.

The appetite may also come because there is still little supply, especially in the big cities. There are simply few homes on the market. Potential buyers are therefore forced to look outside the city, says Calcasa. ‘But it remains difficult to explain why house prices are now rising faster in the more provincial cities.

Another factor in this, according to Calcasa, is that house hunters increasingly value living space and a garden. The corona outbreak and the obligation to work from home have made people even more aware of (the lack of) space. That has reinforced this development even more.

At 2ndhome4u we have also taken notice that rather than an apartment in the city, homebuyers seem to prefer a house outside the city increasingly.

Source: FD