As a start, it is increasingly difficult to find a home to buy. Not only is the supply short, but house prices also continue to rise. The average entry-level should include the average annual salary (€38,000) when buying a first home. This makes the situation for first-time buyers in the housing market worse and worse.

This is evident from research by comparison site Independer. they have issued the so-called “Eigengeldkaart”, which shows how much money a novice should bring to each municipality. One beginner with an average income (38000 euros per year) must contribute the same amount on average to get a house of 60 square meters occupied by the owner.

This is double what it was three years ago. The number of municipalities where you have a chance as a beginner 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.

And this problem does not arise only in Randstad. For example, beginners in Breda and Den Bosch have to bring in more than 80,000 euros of their own money, and in Nijmegen about 40,000 euros.

The same survey found that 8 in 10 first-time buyers (78%) are not sure if they will buy a home again. “This is an incredibly bleak picture,” said Independer’s Marja Langreger Koss. “But that certainly is justified when you look at how much they have to save together so they can buy a house.”

No additional costs due to over-bidding are included in the card, although over-bidding has long been the norm in practice. Three-quarters of the homes were bidding at an average of 8% of the asking price. For a two-ton house, that’s 16,000 euros.

“Every day we see tens of thousands of euros being auctioned off. Of course you should take that part of the bidding as your own money,” says Marga Lankreijer-Kos.

Over-bidding is not entirely without risk. The value of your home is determined by an appraiser. This amount is the maximum mortgage you can get for the house. Everything on top of that, you have to pay it out of your own pocket.

Lankreijer-Kos: “In half of the municipalities you really have to invest a lot of your own money, but you also have to reserve a little for this oversupply. Then you are almost doubled as a beginner.”

According to Peter Boelhauer, professor of housing market policy at TU Delft, higher home prices are due to a lower mortgage interest rate. Lower interest rates allow you to borrow more money, but since there are not enough homes, there is a lot of competition and prices are rising.

This creates a split between homeowners – whose homes are increasing in value by an average of around €6,000 a month – and first-time buyers, who are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with ever-increasing prices.

Now the mortgage rate slowly rising again† That sounds good, because home prices will drop as well. But according to the professor, this is not very useful for beginners. After all, if interest rates go up, you can also get a lower mortgage. Thus, the house prices are lower, but you can also get a less expensive house.

To accommodate beginners, there are several initiatives to allow them to borrow more. For example, you have initial mortgages, with which you can get an additional amount on your mortgage. An expensive rent mortgage, where renters in the free sector are allowed to borrow their long-term high rent to pay for the mortgage.

However, Boelhouwer wonders if these are good solutions. This raises prices even further. This allows beginners to meet the higher prices, so that the increases do not stop.

According to the professor, the final solution lies primarily in the construction of new homes. Additionally, he argues, differences between first-time buyers and homeowners should be reduced.

This can be done, for example, by levying a tax on equity when selling a home. Putting that money into support for beginners completes the cycle. This can to some extent straighten out the proportions in the housing market.