• Development pipeline reaches 18.3 GW, up 34% year-on-year
• Amsterdam accounts for 927 MW of operational capacity; growth in the Netherlands is shifting towards Eemshaven and Middenmeer
• London remains the largest EMEA market, while Paris overtakes Dublin to become the third-largest
• Little evidence of oversupply, with vacancy rates remaining below 10% across most markets

Amsterdam, 25 September 2026 – The Dutch residential investment market has recovered strongly, but its character is changing. Two distinct strategies are emerging. One focuses on long-term ownership and stable rental income, while the other focuses on value creation through the individual sale of rental homes. This is one of the key findings from The Income Era – Netherlands, the Dutch deep dive into Cushman & Wakefield’s European Living research, based on the MSCI Europe Annual Property Index.

Dutch residential rental investments delivered a total return of 11.0% in 2024 and 10.1% in 2025, compared with European averages of 4.2% and 5.4%, respectively. At the same time, the source of returns is changing. Rental income, cost efficiency, and property quality are becoming more important, while capital appreciation is becoming less decisive.

Between 2016 and 2021, around a quarter of the average annual total return of 14.7% came from income. That represented 3.6 percentage points, compared with 11.1 percentage points from capital growth. Since 2022, that relationship has almost reversed. Of the average total return of 4.1%, 3.0 percentage points — nearly three-quarters — came from income. In 2025, Dutch market rents increased by 7.4%. Over the four years to the end of 2025, average annual rental growth stood at 5.7%. According to the analysis, this is linked to changes in the rental market, where regulation is limiting rental growth across a larger share of the housing stock and increasing pressure on the remaining free-market segment.

Roel Timmermans, Head of Living Capital Markets Netherlands at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “As returns increasingly need to come from rental income, the quality of the real estate determines how much of that income is ultimately retained. New-build properties provide a strong foundation for long-term ownership due to lower operating costs and better energy performance. In older stock, regulation and higher investment requirements limit the ability to convert rental growth into net income. Dutch rental policy is therefore widening the gap between investment strategies and making average rental growth an increasingly less useful benchmark for the performance of individual residential portfolios. In such cases, individual unit sales may be a more rational route to value creation.

Total returns Nederland vs Europa, bron: Cushman & Wakefield

In the first half of 2026, residential investment volume reached €3.1 billion, accounting for 57% of the combined sector volume. Investment in new-build properties is focused mainly on regulated and affordable rental housing for long-term ownership. In existing stock, individual unit sales are playing an increasingly important role.

The cost structure is proving decisive. The most cost-efficient quartile of Dutch residential portfolios achieved an annual income return of 3.7% between 2022 and 2025, compared with 2.0% for the least efficient quartile. Notably, that least efficient quartile actually recorded higher market rental growth. It is not rental growth itself, but the share that remains as net income after costs, that determines returns.

Year of construction also makes a difference. In Dutch residential properties built after 2019, 18.9% of income is absorbed by costs, compared with 29.6% for properties built before 1970. Newer homes also generate 54% more net operating income per square metre. They benefit from lower operating costs and better energy performance, while older properties more often require higher spending on maintenance and sustainability improvements and experience lower tenant turnover. As a result, investors are shifting their focus away from initial yields and market rental growth toward the quality of net income.”