From Living to Earning

From Living to Earning

3 December 2025

Since the post-pandemic economic upswing—driven by tourism and construction—the real estate market has overheated. I was one of the first to point out that locals were being priced out. Not everyone appreciated that observation. Later, the numbers confirmed it.

Today, it has even led to protests. But that is not why I’m writing. Recently, another letter from a realtor appeared in the mailbox: there is interest in buying our homes. Our neighborhood is in demand. A few weeks ago, I ran into former neighbors at the botika. They told me they now live in Hof Vidanova. They wanted something smaller. Sold their home, bought another, and kept money in hand.

I’m not writing this out of personal interest, but in the public interest. Because what is happening here is happening everywhere. So much is going on: suddenly, the house next door becomes a B&B, or heavy trucks start rumbling through the street because yet another empty lot has been purchased. And it is never for a simple family home. Houses are no longer part of the home-sweet-home idea. They’ve become investments.

On tiny plots, five or more apartments now rise. From what I see, these are aimed at the tourist market. In itself, nothing wrong with that—but I don’t see the two parking spaces per unit that the rules require. And our streets are narrow.

In one recent case, I noticed during construction that the neighbor had already put their house up for sale. I understand why: who wants to go from a quiet home to living next to a mini-hotel? To my surprise, the apartments weren’t even finished before the entire complex was sold again. So now both the house and the apartment block have been sold—all in the name of making money. Someone loses their home, and the neighborhood gains ten extra cars on the street.

And then there is a deeper problem: young people can no longer buy a home. How do you start a family when there are no affordable entry-level houses? How do you build a future when you have nowhere to land? This is a country that is already more than twice as aged as it should be (meer dan dubbel vergrijsd). The consequence is predictable: aging will continue to accelerate, and there will be too few young people to take over, contribute, and eventually care for the elderly. This, too, is the price of an overheated market.

This is just one example. There are too many to count.

This is what our economic growth looks like.

Miguel Goede