The number of housing transactions in May was down 18% on a year ago but up 27% on April, according to land registry office Kadaster on Monday.

The figures also show the number of newly registered mortgages fell by 25% compared with May 2012 but were up 18% on April.

However, the improvement on April does not mean the housing market is recovering, the Financieele Dagblad said.

A similar situation was seen in April and this is the effect of new mortgage rules which were introduced in January filtering through, the paper said.

Source: DutchNews

Since the price drop in July 2012 the average sales price of houses has hardly changed. This is shown by an analysis of www.woningmarktcijfers.nl

The purchase price has been stable at an average level of 215.000 Euro. In the first half of 2012 the average purchase price was 235.000 Euro. The Price index existing houses for sale (PBK index), publicised by CBS and Kadaster, shows a comparable picture. The sales prices of NVM real estate agents have also not changed in the past three quarters.

Because the CBS and the Kadaster always compare with the same month a year earlier, we can expect another three months of news of price drops. Especially in June, when the comparison with top-month June 2012 (average sales price of 240.000 Euro) will be made, will show a large price drop.

As from July the developments will be positive for the first time, since comparisons will be made with the lower current prices. It could mean that for the first time we will see higher sales price averages for a couple of months.  The lower mortgage interest rates may have a positive influence on this also. Apart from further price drops this could mean an end of an era in which mostly negative sentiments were ruling the Dutch housing market.

Source: Propertynl.com

Home owners paid off their mortgage extra earlier this year. In the first few months of this year 40 to 50 per cent more pay offs were made. The trend started in 2012 and is being continued, but faster. In 2012 banks received 20 to 50 per cent more in pay offs than in 2011. At ABN Amro one in five customers made extra pay offs this year.

An important reason for people to pay off more is the fact that they have become more debt conscious. Many home owners see that the value of their house goes lower than the height of their mortgage debt. They pay off to avoid being left with a debt at the end of the 30 year mortgage term.

Source: NOS

Some 14,300 newly built homes were sold last year, the worst results in the sector since 1950, according to housing developers’ association NVB.

This year the NVB is forecasting a further deterioration, saying just 10,000 new homes will be sold. In 2006, when the housing market was nearing its peak, 44,000 new homes found owners.

The NVB blames national government in The Hague for the housing development sector’s woes. It points out that the value-added tax reduction only applies to redevelopment and renovation, not new building projects.

Housing corporations have virtually stopped building new homes and the rules for first-time buyers are now extremely complicated, the organisation said.

It also criticised banks for refusing to consider loans to new housing projects and local authorities for refusing to cut land prices.

Source: Dutchnews.nl

Over 75% of housing corporations will put up the rents of high-earning tenants in the rent-controlled sector when new legislation comes into force, Nos television reports on Tuesday.

The broadcaster questioned 220 housing corporations about the government’s plan to allow inflation-busting rises for richer households, in an effort to encourage them to move.

Some 2.4 million homes in the Netherlands are rent-controlled, but a large number are lived in by people who technically earn too much – over €43,000 a year.

Inflation

Later on Tuesday, senators are due to vote on housing minister Stef Blok’s plan to allow landlords to put up rents by as much as 6.5% for high earners in cheap housing. Until now, they have been limited to rent increases in line with inflation.

The corporations say they need the extra cash to pay a new tax which will cost them a combined €1.75bn.

One in 10 corporations say they will not bring in the higher rent increases because of the cost of administering it.

The extra rent increases will not affect households paying over €681 a month for their homes. These are no longer rent controlled.

Source: Dutchnews.nl

Plans to reform the housing sector worked out by the government and three opposition parties will cost the treasury some €200m a year in lost income, housing minister Stef Blok said on Wednesday.

The deal, which involves the government softening some of its plans, was necessary to ensure majority support in the upper house of parliament. The Labour-Liberal coalition does not control the senate.

Presenting the agreement to the press, Blok said it would provide an impulse to the housing market. The agreement will tackle reducing the number of richer people living in rent-controlled properties and boost the owner-occupier sector, Blok said.

The minister said he will examine how to make up the shortfall in spending in March.

Opposition

The deal is supported by the two minor Christian parties ChristenUnie and SGP as well as the D66 Liberal democrats.

The leaders of all three parties said they would be prepared to work together to solve impasses in other areas of government policy. For example, the cabinet’s plans to scrap student loans does not command majority support in the senate either.

Construction companies and the real estate organisation NVM have welcomed the agreement. ‘This is an improvement in policy,’ the NVM said in a statement.

Eelco Brinkman, head of the building sector lobby group Bouwend Nederland, said the deal brought clarity to the situation. ‘This is positive and softens the pain,’ Brinkman said.

The main points of the new agreement:

• Social housing rents for people earning more than €43,000 a year will go up by a maximum 6.5% not 9%.
• Middle and low-income houses will face rent increases of 4.5% and 3.5%.
• Tenants whose income goes down may qualify for rent cuts.
• Social housing rents will not be determined by the value of the property as planned and the current point-based system will remain.
• Home buyers will get tax relief on their mortgage payments on hybrid mortgages involving 50% repayment. The cabinet had planned to limit the tax break to 100% repayment mortgages.
• Value-added tax (btw) on home improvements will be cut from 21% to 6% for one year.
• The government will set up new funds to help first-time buyers and people who want to boost their home’s energy efficiency.
• The extra tax on housing corporations will reach €1.75bn, not €2bn

Source: DutchNews.nl

The number of people applying for compensation from the National Mortgage Warranty kitty (NHG – Nationale Hypotheek Garantie) is raising steadily due to the financial crisis. If this trend is going to continue, the bottom of the kitty will be reached in a few years time, according to Dutch newspaper AD.

The housing market is in such a bad state, that the warranty system is under pressure. If the housing market doesn’t improve, the NHG backup money kitty will reach its bottom rapidly.

The NHG takes care of those people that cannot pay for their mortgage anymore due to job-loss or a divorce. The NHG wants to prevent that home owners are left behind with a mortgage debt. The amount of people getting into financial trouble grew rapidly last year. The number of foreclosures grew by 75 per cent, from 2400 to 3500. The average mortgage debt leftover was 36.000 Euro.

Source: AD

Local authorities are now hunting for illegal hotels

Following legal issues across the US, Airbnb is facing serious conflicts with the local government in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Airbnb’s issues in Amsterdam have been ongoing; in fact, an investigation into the service was ordered by authorities back in November, led by Alderman Freek Ossel. So far, 200 “suspicious” homes have already been researched, and Dutch newspaper Parool reports that “if something was wrong while tourists were staying in the homes, [authorities] closed the houses and tourists were stranded on the streets of Amsterdam” [translation:TNW].

Now, things appear to be escalating quickly: reports are surfacing that next week a team of civil servants will go out on the streets to look for illegal hotel activities. Government representative Eikelboom has reportedly stated that “it’s not unlikely that teams will check whole streets simultaneously.”

These government workers will apparently be looking into “fire safety,” but also illegal rental of rooms to tourists. Parool goes on to state that “there are approximately 2,000 properties in Amsterdam that run illegal ‘hotel like’ businesses.” Clearly, this means trouble for users of both Airbnb and Rocket Internet clone Wimdu. Airbnb currently counts 4191 listings for Amsterdam, making it one of its most popular cities in Europe.

Aside from safety concerns, the local government is fighting back because most hosts don’t pay taxes on their income from ‘illegally renting.’ The government believes Airbnb doesn’t comply with local legislation (VAT and tourist tax). Conversely, Airbnb calls itself a marketplace, and states that its users are responsible for complying with the local legislation.

That appears to have been the same argument eBay and Paypal made in the past, however both were eventually forced to comply with local legislation.

Is Airbnb illegal?

The Amsterdam government released an official statement in regards to this issue, and went on to define an illegal hotel as “an apartment or house without an official hotel permit that can be rented by tourists in return for money”  [translation:TNW]. Legal exceptions appear to be renters with a short stay permit or official bed and breakfast businesses. By that definition, hosting a room on Airbnb is already illegal.

Our sources tell us that the local Amsterdam government has been in contact with Airbnb EU in regards to this matter.

This isn’t an isolated issue, and it signals major problems for Airbnb in the long run. A full ban in Amsterdam could cause a chain reaction, but that may not even be necessary to cause major issues for the service; a wide-scale scare such as this could turn the city against the service as residents face massive fines.

Update: Airbnb has issued the following statement, which we’ve reproduced in full below:

“Last weekend, journalists speculated that city officials in Amsterdam were on the verge of banning Airbnb.

“The City of Amsterdam was quick to post a clarification on its official Facebook page, noting that the journalist had not checked with any government sources before publishing the article.

“According to city spokesperson Jan-Jaap Eikelboom, the conclusion that a ban was in the works was unfounded. “We obviously don’t want to ban Airbnb, which is a good initiative.” From his personal Twitter account, Eikelboom noted, “Nobody takes time to double-check sources.”

“As I’ve written before in this space, Airbnb is committed to working collaboratively with governments at all levels to ensure that our members bring a range of benefits to the communities they inhabit. Even when sensationalism threatens to overpower the discourse, we stand by our strategy: thoughtful, rational progress that focuses on harnessing the benefits of innovation while maintaining a responsible, positive community.”

Source: The Next Web