The Dutch newspaper Volkskrant concluded in a study of the 300 largest rental property owners in the Netherlands that there are more and more individual property owners in the Netherlands, and their development speed has even exceeded that of housing rental companies.
The newspaper sifted data from the Dutch Land Registry, showing that the number of individual owners of rental houses has increased by 22.3% in the past ten years. At the same time, housing companies have to sell rental houses, and the number of properties belonging to housing companies is much less than 10 years ago.
Rotterdam businessman Aat van Herk owns nearly 6,000 rental properties, making him the largest individual owner in the Netherlands, with a total value of approximately 1.2 billion euros.
Prince Bernhard of the Dutch royal family has also frequently appeared in the news of property rentals recently, especially his property in Amsterdam, although his name is not among the largest private owners in the Netherlands. He owns 40 properties that are entirely his own, but he works with business partners and there are 108 properties.
In addition, the value of the Prince’s property is comparable to that of Rotterdam’s Van Herk (5,820 residential units), The Hague entrepreneur Harry Hilders (5,500 residential units) or Maastricht real estate family Grouwels (5,200 residential units).
However, although the rate of increase in rental housing ownership among professional housing companies and investment companies is slower than that of private owners, housing companies and investment companies still own most of the 3.3 million rental units in the Netherlands so far.
Aat van Herk, a private owner of Rotterdam, ranks only 106th among the top 300 house renters in the Netherlands. Ymere Housing Society owns nearly 72,000 rental properties, while Vestia owns approximately 64,000.
In the investment company list, Vesteda is the largest investment company on the list, with nearly 28,000 properties.