€300 Billion Baby Boomer Wealth Transfer Set to Widen Dutch Housing Inequality

The Netherlands is on the brink of a historic transfer of housing wealth that will deepen the divide between those who can rely on family money and those who cannot, according to a new analysis by mortgage advisor Van Bruggen.

Between 2024 and 2033, an estimated €300 billion in housing assets will be passed down through gifts and inheritances, primarily from aging Baby Boomers to their children and grandchildren. The transfer will mainly benefit people aged 45 to 65 whose parents own homes, allowing them to use that wealth — often combined with equity from their own properties — to move up the housing ladder.

But for the many buyers without access to family wealth, the playing field is becoming increasingly uneven. “Far from everyone has access to that family wealth,” said Oscar Noorlag, a mortgage expert at Van Bruggen, in comments reported by NL Times.

The figures are stark. Homeowners over 55 collectively hold nearly €900 billion in home equity. The total value of all Dutch owner-occupied homes more than doubled between 2006 and 2024, from €1,032 billion to €2,181 billion, while combined equity rose from €546 billion to €1,373 billion. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the richest 10 percent of Dutch households already own over 56 percent of all wealth.

For international residents in the Netherlands, the implications are direct. Buying a home here increasingly requires not just a mortgage but also a significant amount of personal cash — known as eigen geld — to bridge the gap between the loan and the purchase price. That cash often comes from family. Without Dutch parents or grandparents who built equity during the decades of housing price growth, many expats and internationals start at a disadvantage.

This is not a new trend, but the scale of the coming transfer will accelerate it. Van Bruggen estimates that about one million Dutch people will receive a substantial gift or inheritance over the next decade. The wealth is concentrated in the hands of those whose parents own homes — a group that skews older, whiter, and more established.

What does this mean for someone living in the Netherlands on a residence permit? If you are in your 30s or 40s and saving for a first home, you are competing not just against other first-time buyers, but against people in their 50s and 60s who can add a six-figure inheritance to their existing home equity. The gap is structural and likely to widen.

Policymakers in The Hague have so far focused on supply-side measures — building more homes, tightening rent controls, and tweaking mortgage rules. But the inheritance-driven inequality is a demand-side phenomenon that existing policies do little to address. Transfer taxes (overdrachtsbelasting) and gift tax exemptions (schenkingsvrijstelling) currently favour those who receive family money, with the annual gift tax exemption for home purchases set at over €31,000 in 2026.

For internationals, the message is clear: if you do not have family wealth in the Netherlands, you will need to save more, bid higher, or consider alternatives like cooperative housing or renting longer than planned. The housing market is not just about supply and demand — it is increasingly about which family you were born into.

As the Baby Boomer generation passes on its assets, the inequality embedded in the Dutch housing market will only become more pronounced. For those without access to that wealth, the dream of owning a home in the Netherlands may remain just out of reach.