Living/housing

KEA is set to expand its presence in the Netherlands with a number of smaller-format stores next year. The supermarket-sized locations will focus on home accessories such as tableware and lighting, making the retailer more accessible in areas further from its existing large stores.

Prices of existing owner-occupied homes fell month on month in August for the first time since December 2025. Compared to July, house prices dropped...

Parents will pay a slightly higher contribution for childcare from 2029 than previously planned. The government has decided to reimburse 95.6 per cent of...

The government plans to increase monthly rents by 50 to 100 euros for higher-income tenants living in social housing (scheefwoners), according to a letter to...

Housing Minister Elanor Boekholt-O'Sullivan has set out a strategy to tackle the housing shortage by building more, faster, and better. Her proposal lists fifty...

Severe capacity shortages across the Dutch electricity grid are threatening to derail housing targets, driving up construction costs and leaving completed developments marooned without power. Network trade body Netbeheer Nederland confirmed that the overwhelmed infrastructure cannot process hundreds of thousands of new connection requests, creating a bottleneck that housing group Aedes warns will leave house hunters waiting even longer for affordable homes. With developers committing vast capital to projects that lack guaranteed electricity access, real estate association NVM cautioned that these ongoing grid constraints are dealing a "significant" blow to the nation's overall supply of new-build properties.

The government plans to speed up power grid expansions by cutting red tape and streamlining planning rules to fix severe network capacity shortages that are leaving new housing and businesses stranded without electricity connections. By updating existing regulations, removing several mandatory permits, and limiting legal appeals to a single hearing at the highest court, ministers hope to shave up to 18 months off construction times. Beyond cutting bureaucracy, the strategy relies on asking businesses to shift peak energy usage to quieter hours and temporarily tapping into backup power capacity while the sector continues to grapple with severe worker and material shortages.

Cosun reports a significant drop in sugar beet yields due to prolonged summer drought, lowering its sugar forecast and pushing back the start of processing to give crops more growing time.