City

Amsterdam

Country

🇳🇱 Netherlands

Population

933,680

Renting

68%of residents rent

Cooperative

1%cooperative housing

Social/Public

40%social/public housing

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Housing Market

In Amsterdam, about 70% of residents rent their homes while 30% own their property. The average price to buy an apartment is around €8,000–€8,400 per square meter, with some central districts reaching up to €10,500 per square meter. The median rent for apartments in the private sector is currently €1,781 per month in 2025, which equates to approximately €30–€36 per square meter per month, depending on location and property type. The market has recently stabilized after years of rapid price increases, and transaction volumes are rising.

Publicly owned housing, managed mainly by housing associations, accounts for around 40% of the city’s total housing stock. Social housing is a subset of public housing, reserved primarily for lower-income households and subject to strict rent controls, income eligibility, and long waiting lists. Not all public housing is social; some publicly owned homes are rented at market or near-market rates, outside of social housing regulations. This distinction means that public housing contributes to both affordability (via social housing) and general supply (via broader non-social units) in Amsterdam.

New rental regulations and government measures continue to shape both the private and public sectors, aiming to increase affordability and curb excessive rent growth.

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Housing Crisis

Amsterdam faces a severe housing crisis marked by a persistent shortage, soaring prices, and rising inequality. The city’s housing deficit is estimated at over 45,000 homes, and transaction volumes have grown sharply in recent months. Property prices in Amsterdam average just under €472,000, with a nearly 10% annual increase pushing ownership further out of reach for many, especially as buyers increasingly need double the average Dutch household income or family financial support to purchase a home. Rental availability is shrinking, with new listings in the private sector down by over a third, while tenant competition for available units has grown by almost half.

The crisis affects diverse groups: young adults, middle-income earners not eligible for social housing, people with a migrant background, single parents, those living on social benefits, and people with disabilities. Vulnerable populations are hit hardest, with a quarter of renters struggling to afford bills and homelessness rates having doubled in recent years. Segregation is rising as social housing becomes scarcer and is unevenly distributed across neighborhoods, exacerbating social and spatial inequalities. Discriminatory obstacles, poverty, and complex benefit systems further restrict access, while people with disabilities often find suitable, accessible housing unattainable. The crisis therefore deepens divides across economic, ethnic, and generational lines throughout Amsterdam.

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Local programs

Amsterdam’s city administration addresses affordable and sustainable housing through ambitious supply targets and a multi-pronged program approach. The Housing Agenda 2025 sets a binding goal to deliver 52,500 new homes by the end of 2025, with 40% of new builds designated as social housing and a further 20% as mid-range “middle rent” units, enhancing both affordability and social inclusion. Several flagship urban redevelopment projects underpin these targets, including Marktkwartier West (~1,700 homes) and major expansions in the Zuidas district, where new neighborhoods like Ravel and Verdi will add mixed-tenure supply with integrated community facilities and innovative sustainability features. The city’s new housing developments are required to follow circular construction principles, aiming to halve raw material use by 2030 and transition to full circularity by 2050. Concrete city programs include prioritizing permitting for sustainable builds, incentivizing energy efficiency, maintaining strict rent regulation, and enforcing maximum annual rent increases (4.1% for private, 7.7% for mid-range, 5% for social housing) to protect tenants. Amsterdam’s administration also continues to prioritize vulnerable groups in allocation policies, resists national moves that could undermine social integration, and collaborates with the national government under new laws to accelerate construction and enforce local targets.

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Cooperative Housing

Housing cooperatives in Amsterdam currently make up a very small proportion of the housing stock, but the city is actively promoting their expansion in response to high demand for affordable, community-oriented housing. As of 2025, less than 1% of housing units are cooperatively owned, yet city policy aims for cooperative housing to account for 10% of the total stock within 25 years. The “Action Plan Housing Cooperatives” targets the creation of 7,000 cooperative units by 2030, with half built as new constructions through self-build programs. Support includes a €50 million loan fund, municipal co-financing, and land allocated on long-term leaseholds, making it easier for resident groups to develop and own their homes collectively. While the sector is still nascent, membership is rising and initiatives draw inspiration from successful models in Switzerland and Germany. Amsterdam’s cooperative housing push is part of a broader municipal strategy for a more affordable and inclusive housing market, with policy instruments combining financial incentives, regulatory support, and dedicated land allocation to stimulate cooperative developments. The city’s commitment signals steady potential growth in the sector and increasing opportunities for community-led urban living.

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Republica

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Amsterdam

Housing Market

Housing Crisis

Local programs

Cooperative Housing

Resources related to Amsterdam

Living Cities: A peek at the EU’s Affordable Housing Plan

(H)Activate the City

The demand for housing cooperatives in the Netherlands

European Research on Housing Cooperatives

Enabling and embedding circularity goals in housing cooperatives

Republica

What is the financialisation of housing?

Living and working in Europe - 2024 edition

Just the Facts - Under One Roof? Europe’s Housing Crisis

Housing affordability: Approaches to measurement and key data insights

Unaffordable and inadequate housing in Europe

A review of circular industrialised construction for sustainable and affordable housing: Towards a process-driven framework

Porticus

CrowdBuilding

Tools to Deal with Vacant Housing

Urban Regeneration - Turning obsolescence into value for society, nature, climate – and investors

#Housing2030 Effective policies for affordable housing in the UNECE region

Formation and Financing of the European Cooperative Society (SCE)

Gemeinschaftliches Wohnen und selbstorganisiertes Bauen

Urban Community Land Trust in Europe

Commons: Between Dreams and Reality

Socially oriented cooperative housing as alternative to housing speculation

Social Innovations in the Urban Context

How to build a better City in 2021

Policy Voices | Addressing the housing crisis: local solutions for a European problem?

Housing in the EU: The EU as a commodifying force

The Non-capitalist Solution to the Housing Crisis

Can you afford to live here? Europe’s cities ranked by rent-to-salary ratio

Housing Needs and Cooperative Housing Models: A Scoping Review

International policies to promote cooperative housing

Eurocities Pulse Mayors Survey 2025

Housing affordability and sustainability in the EU

Housing as an engine of inequality and the role of policy

Addressing the environmental and climate footprint of buildings

A broken housing market is driving inequality right across Europe – and fuelling the far right

Marc Koehler Architects (MKA)

Commons Network

Skytree

Monumental

Why and how cities can promote affordable and sustainable Collaborative Housing | CoHabitat Network

Beyond collective property: a typology of collaborative housing in Europe

INBO

Bajesdorp

Vrijburcht

De Torteltuin

de Nieuwe Meent

EDGE

Metabolic

Schoonschip

Land Policy in Practice: A Tale of Two Dutch Cities

Amsterdam

Housing Market

Housing Crisis

Local programs

Cooperative Housing

Resources related to Amsterdam

Living Cities: A peek at the EU’s Affordable Housing Plan

(H)Activate the City

The demand for housing cooperatives in the Netherlands

European Research on Housing Cooperatives

Enabling and embedding circularity goals in housing cooperatives

Republica

What is the financialisation of housing?

Living and working in Europe - 2024 edition

Just the Facts - Under One Roof? Europe’s Housing Crisis

Housing affordability: Approaches to measurement and key data insights

Unaffordable and inadequate housing in Europe

A review of circular industrialised construction for sustainable and affordable housing: Towards a process-driven framework

Porticus

CrowdBuilding

Tools to Deal with Vacant Housing

Urban Regeneration - Turning obsolescence into value for society, nature, climate – and investors

#Housing2030 Effective policies for affordable housing in the UNECE region

Formation and Financing of the European Cooperative Society (SCE)