Dutch residential top of the list as investors turn to safe havens

There’s plenty of capital available but investors are looking for safe havens in today’s uncertain environment, experts agreed at Real Asset Media’s Trends 2025: Investment Outlook Netherlands briefing, which took place recently in Amsterdam.

“Residential in the Netherlands is the safest of bets,” said Rogier Bos, real estate finance Benelux, Berlin Hyp. “There is a lot of liquidity available, but not enough pressure in the market to bring buyers’ and sellers’ expectations closer, and that is delaying transactions.”

There is huge demand for residential across the board, from students and young professionals to families and senior citizens.

“The amount of capital available is substantial and there are a lot of transactions coming in the residential market, but issues with zoning and regulations are slowing things down,” said Jaap van der Bijl, CEO, Altera Vastgoed. “Looking ahead, I am positive on the market because investors are looking for safe havens.”

Space availability is limited in the Netherlands, so there is increasing competition between asset classes.

But the case for resi is overwhelming, said van der Bijl: “We need to build and build quickly, and make the most efficient use of space, which is building apartments. We recently delivered a 200-unit building, and we had 10,000 prospective tenants. This illustrates the huge demand out there.”

Aside from residential, Altera Vastgoed focuses on grocery-anchored retail, because as neighbourhoods expand and new housing is built, “residents must have a supermarket nearby”, said van der Bijl.

In today’s market, the best course of action is “focusing on robust and stable income, long-term income-producing assets,” said Peter Helfrich, managing director, Primevest Capital Partners. “We’re big believers in parking garages, because contrary to expectations car ownership has actually increased in the Netherlands and people use public transport less.”

The strategy is to go for off-street parking to make cities more liveable, and to add charging points for electric cars to add a green element.

Another growth sector that has just begun to take off is data centres, Helfrich said, given the ever-growing importance of data, but it needs a lot of energy and grid capacity is a serious concern.

“We had a lot of expectations about 2025 after three years of lacklustre markets,” said Helfrich. “But we did not expect the geopolitical uncertainty we are in. We are still waiting for things to improve.”

There’s been a recalibration of expectations among investors, as interest rates are not as low as forecast yet and global issues have had an unforeseen impact on the market.

Despite this, there are reasons to be hopeful, said Bos: “Given the current global uncertainty, Europe is a stable environment and a good place to be. We have to deal with this new reality, but it is not such a bad moment to buy.”