How the Tourism Boom is Reshaping the Netherlands’ Real Estate Market

Published on May 2, 2026 and written by Cyril Jarnias

For about ten years now, tourism in the Netherlands is no longer just about hotels and museums. It now weighs heavily on housing prices, urban planning choices, real estate investment, and even social cohesion. The country continues to attract more visitors, but at the same time it needs to build nearly 900,000 homes over fifteen years, resolve an acute student housing crisis, and meet its climate commitments. The rise of tourism is therefore occurring in an already strained market, amplifying certain imbalances while opening up new investment opportunities.

A Considerable Economic Weight Reflected in Real Estate

Tourism is now a pillar of the Dutch economy, and this is immediately visible in the figures.

Tourism and hospitality represent massive amounts of spending and investment, with a direct impact on the value of real estate assets related to visitor accommodation, but also on residential neighborhoods in major cities.

Here are some orders of magnitude that help measure this growing influence.

A Tourism Sector That Has Become an Investment Driver

Tourist spending in the Netherlands reached approximately 105 billion euros in 2023, with over 50 million guests staying at least one night in 2024, a level above that of 2019. The dynamic is not limited to Amsterdam: coastal provinces, islands, certain regional cities, and even rural areas benefit from this flow.

A quick look at recent hotel transactions illustrates this appetite:

This surge particularly attracts institutional investors and private equity funds, who see hospitality as a segment capable of delivering an average annual return of around 8%, aligned with the historical performance of Dutch real estate, while benefiting from structurally growing tourist demand through 2035.

Growing Visitor Flows Spread Across the Country

According to projections from the national tourism board NBTC, the total number of overnight guests in the Netherlands is expected to increase from 49.4 million in 2023 to over 61 million in 2035, a growth of about 24%. The increase will be stronger for international visitors (+39%, up to 28 million) than for domestic tourists (+13%, up to 33 million).

This mass of visitors mechanically alters the use value and land value of many sites: homes converted into short-term rentals, office buildings repurposed as hotels, massive acquisitions of holiday parks by funds, and pressure on residential rents in city centers and student districts.

Amsterdam: A High-Pressure Laboratory

Nowhere is the tourism impact on real estate more visible than in Amsterdam. The capital combines international hyper-attractiveness, a constrained housing stock, population growth, and extremely tight regulation. The result is a real estate market that is both highly strained and massively financialized.

A City That Welcomes More Tourists Than Residents

Amsterdam welcomes over 20 million visitors each year, more than its official population (around 900,000 inhabitants in 2022, expected to reach about 1.1 million by 2050). In 2023, the city recorded 22.1 million overnight stays for 9.4 million visitors, already exceeding its political cap of 20 million annual hotel nights.

Projections are telling: between 22.9 and 25.4 million overnight stays are expected as early as 2024, and up to 26.6 million by 2026. Unsurprisingly, this attractiveness has long translated into massive development of hotel and para-hotel capacity.

In 2009, Amsterdam had 369 hotels with 20,932 rooms. By 2017, there were already 479, with over 32,600 rooms and nearly 72,000 beds. In fifteen years, the city became one of the densest hotel markets in Europe, to the point where authorities decided to pull the handbrake.

From Encouragement to “Hotel Stop”: A Strategic Reversal

In the 2000s, the municipality explicitly encouraged the creation of new rooms. A policy adopted in 2007 aimed to add 9,000 rooms by 2015, promoting a range of concepts (budget, design, extended stay, family hotels, etc.) and attracting major international brands.

But the rapid growth of tourist flows, combined with the proliferation of short-term rentals, caused the narrative to shift. Since 2017, Amsterdam has enforced a “hotel stop”: in principle, no new hotels are welcome. Only projects already approved continued to come to market until around 2020.

– The entire city is now classified as a “no zone” for new hotels;

– No ground lease amendments are granted for hotel projects in restricted zones;

– The only permitted exception is the “new-for-old” principle: a new hotel is only allowed if it replaces existing capacity, with no net increase in beds.

This mechanism itself is subject to a long list of conditions: maintaining the same accommodation capacity, minimum 4-star rating, a “unique” concept providing social, cultural, or economic contribution, facilities open to the public (restaurants, cultural amenities), compliance with very high environmental standards (carbon-neutral building, renewable energy), a social entrepreneurship charter, and neighborhood consultation. These requirements turn any project into a complex case, reserved for players with significant financial and technical capabilities.

Direct consequence on the supply: the pipeline shows only a 0.8% increase in the number of rooms in Amsterdam through 2027, in a context where demand continues to rise. The Netherlands thus posts the lowest hotel supply growth in Europe, with a national increase of just 2.5% in the number of rooms by 2028 (about 1,250 additional rooms, for a total of around 49,600).

When Airbnb and Short-Term Rentals Disrupt the Residential Market

Beyond hotels, it’s the rise of short-term tourist rentals – epitomized by Airbnb and other platforms – that has profoundly shaken Amsterdam’s residential market.

For an already insufficient housing stock, the shock is severe. Apartments that could have been rented long-term are shifted to year-round tourist rental, which is more profitable. At the same time, new housing construction is not keeping pace. Result: skyrocketing rents, displacement of lower-income households, increasing difficulty for young families to stay in the city center, and a feeling of “Disneyfication” in certain neighborhoods like the historic center or De Wallen.

The municipality responds with a series of successive measures, gradually becoming one of the most regulated cities in Europe regarding tourist furnished rentals:

– Mandatory registration for every host, with a registration number displayed on listings;

– Limit of 60 nights per year, reduced to 30 nights from 2019 for renting out the entire primary residence;

– Maximum of 4 people per night;

– Mandatory payment of tourist tax;

– Complete ban in certain streets or micro-districts;

– Since 2021, a mandatory permit for tourist rentals and B&Bs, with quotas in some areas;

– From 2026, a plan to cap at 15 nights per year in the most pressured neighborhoods (Jordaan, Grachtengordel, De Pijp, etc.).

Very Tough Regulation… But It Doesn’t Solve the Housing Crisis

The key question, however, remains whether these restrictions on tourist rentals actually free up housing for residents. Available data provides a nuanced answer.

An analysis covering 2019–2024 shows that after the introduction of the 30-night cap, the number of Airbnb listings dropped by 54%. Yet over the same period, long-term rents in Amsterdam surged by 34%, compared to “only” 13% nationwide. Moreover, very active listings (those operating continuously) represent less than 0.09% of the city’s housing stock. In other words, while tourist rentals exacerbate tensions, they are not the sole driver of the rent surge.

Platform actors are quick to seize on this. Airbnb claims its listings account for less than 2% of the city’s overnight stays and decries a “political symbol” disconnected from market reality. Municipal authorities, for their part, highlight other objectives: protecting the residential character of neighborhoods, combating neighborhood nuisance, and curbing a form of gentrification accelerated by tourist uses.

Alongside this battle, Amsterdam also deploys an arsenal in the traditional rental market: permits for so-called “mid-priced” rentals (up to €1,184 base rent) reserved for households below certain income thresholds, tightening of co-living rules, and personal occupancy requirements to curb speculation. So it’s not just tourism that is targeted, but the overall volatility of the real estate market in a globally attractive city.

Pressure Shifts Toward Coasts and Regions

Amsterdam’s restrictive policies have a side effect: they push part of the tourist demand, as well as real estate investment, toward other areas. This is especially visible along the coast and in certain secondary provinces, where the growth of leisure residences and holiday parks is reshaping the real estate landscape.

Coastal Areas: Between Economic Boon and “Overtourism” Fears

Dutch coastal municipalities are experiencing a spectacular tourism boom. Between 2014 and 2024, overnight stays in coastal municipalities rose from 21.8 million to 30.2 million, an increase of 39%. Some areas, like Greater Rijnmond, saw their overnight stays more than double (+122%), while Zeeuws-Vlaanderen posted +71% and the Kop van Noord-Holland region +49%.

This visitor volume supports a vast leisure accommodation stock: there are 656 holiday parks on the coast in 2024, housing nearly 25,000 vacation homes. That’s over 800 more homes than two years ago, and over 10% more than in 2017. In other words, a significant portion of coastal real estate growth is directly tied to tourist demand.

But this intensification of tourism raises weighty questions for residents. More than half of inhabitants in coastal municipalities fear the situation will become even more crowded. Support for tourism is lower there (3.3 out of 5) than in inland areas (3.5). Add to that very concrete tensions: parking lots saturated in summer (in Zandvoort, parking goes from €0.50 per hour in winter to €2.50 in summer), pressure on natural areas (half of the 340 beach pavilions must be dismantled and rebuilt each year), and increased cost of living in some villages.

The Specific Dynamic of Holiday Parks

The holiday park market has become a major sub-segment of tourist real estate in the Netherlands, with its own economic and financial logic. Overnight stays there increased by more than 40% between 2012 and 2024, even though the number of homes only grew by 26% (an average annual growth of about 2% in the stock). Demand has therefore grown faster than supply.

Financially, holiday parks now represent a true asset class. Large private equity funds and institutional investors have taken control of several chains: Roompot and Landal are owned by KKR, Center Parcs belongs to Aroundtown, EuroParcs to Waterland, and RCN is linked to Blackstone, while Roundshield has also shown interest. New parks deliver stabilized returns of around 7.5–8% from the third year onward, and privatization strategies (selling cottages to individuals) allow returns of around 5.5% under certain conditions (often, about 70% of units must be sold within 18 months to secure financing).

For municipalities, the windfall is twofold: on one hand, tourists spend heavily in local shops; on the other, the tax base increases with property values. But this monetization of the coast also intensifies competition for land use – between permanent residents, tourism, agriculture, and natural areas – and drives up land costs.

Hotels, Serviced Apartments, Co-Living: The Reshaping of Urban Real Estate

Tourism’s impact on real estate in the Netherlands is not limited to traditional hotels. In major cities, new concepts – serviced apartments, hybrid residences, co-living – are redrawing the map of housing and office space, often through the conversion of office buildings and former structures.

A Highly Structured Hotel Supply… But with Limited Expansion

Nationally, hotels post high occupancy rates: 72.6% on average in 2024, compared to 68.7% in Europe. Demand is solid, but the capacity for price increases has leveled off: after a spike of +24% in prices between 2019 and 2023, the average rate fell by nearly 2% in 2024, and even by 3% in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Breda, amid rising labor costs (+11% in hospitality in 2024, versus +6% in the rest of the economy).

This structure, combined with local “hotel stop” policies, limits supply growth capacity, even as tourist flows continue to rise. In theory, this supports the valuation of existing assets, especially in city centers and transport hubs. But the planned increase in VAT on overnight stays, from 9% to 21% in 2026, along with Amsterdam’s very high tourist tax (12.5% of the room price, potentially pushing total fiscal pressure close to 35%), risks significantly raising costs for guests and weighing on the country’s competitiveness compared to other European destinations.

The Explosion of Hybrid Formats and Conversions

In this tense context, alternative formats are developing rapidly: serviced apartments, international student residences, and hybrid concepts blending hotel, co-living, and coworking.

Several signals point in this direction:

Since 2016, dozens of Dutch office buildings have been converted into hotels, hybrid residences, or co-living formats – a way to meet tourist and residential demand without consuming new land. In Rotterdam, the Boompjes 200 office building was purchased by the Van der Valk group to be converted into a hotel with around 300 rooms. In Leiden and Breda, Intercity and Leonardo hotels have been built or renovated as part of this conversion movement.

These projects, seemingly purely tourist-oriented, have broader real estate implications: they transform quiet office districts into mixed-use areas, create demand for local shops, and indirectly contribute to the revaluation of surrounding housing. But they also intensify competition between uses (offices, housing, tourism) in dense urban fabrics.

Tourism, Housing Shortage, and Social Tensions

Tourism is not the sole cause of the housing crisis in the Netherlands, but it has become a significant factor, especially in major urban centers and student cities. The numbers are stark: about 900,000 homes need to be built over the next 15 years to meet demand, even as building permits lag behind targets, construction costs rise, and environmental regulations tighten (notably on nitrogen emissions).

A Chronic Shortage That Impacts Students

The case of students is particularly revealing of the gap between international attraction policies and residential capacity. The Netherlands is among the most sought-after European destinations for higher education, with the share of international students rising from 7.7% to 13.7% in ten years. But the student housing stock is not keeping pace.

Part of these tensions is attributable to the arbitrage of private landlords, who, faced with new regulations (affordable rent law, tighter taxation on investments – “Box 3”, stricter co-living rules), choose to sell rather than continue renting. In this context, the possibility of converting, even partially, homes into more lucrative tourist accommodations becomes an adjustment variable for some investors, further intensifying pressure.

Students find themselves in direct competition with tourists for well-located studios, but also with young professionals and families. The result is an extreme scarcity of supply in major university cities like Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Leiden, Groningen, and Eindhoven, where student room rents often range between 700 and 1,000 euros per month, with annual increases sometimes reaching double digits.

Gentrification, “Disneyfication,” and a Sense of Dispossession

In Amsterdam’s historicized neighborhoods, the rise of tourism and associated investments produces well-documented effects: rising prices, commercial homogenization (proliferation of tourist-oriented shops at the expense of everyday services), saturation of public space, night noise, etc. Residents speak of living in an “amusement park” or a postcard backdrop.

Neighborhood satisfaction data in areas like De Wallen show some of the lowest levels in the city. Added to this is a classic “social sorting” phenomenon of attractive cities: wealthier households acquire or rent the best-located homes, while middle and lower classes are pushed to the periphery, to other cities, or even outside the Netherlands.

Neighborhood satisfaction data and social sorting phenomenon

These dynamics echo mechanisms observed elsewhere in the world: in Costa Rica, Spain, or Iceland, studies show how a tourist demand shock can, via rising short-term rents, incentivize entrepreneurs to purchase more properties for tourist use, reducing stock available for permanent residents and causing a generalized rise in real estate prices. The Netherlands is no exception, even if the regulatory framework is stricter and local governance more proactive.

The Fiscal and Regulatory Response: Trying to Balance Revenue and Sustainability

Faced with these tensions, Dutch authorities are experimenting with a range of tools: high tourist taxes, announced VAT increase on accommodation, quotas and moratoriums for hotels, drastic restrictions on short-term rentals, regulation of mid-priced rents, tighter control of leases in the private sector, and incentives for massive investment in energy renovation.

The Tourist Tax as a Regulatory Tool… But at the Cost of Competitiveness

Amsterdam has opted for one of the heaviest tourist taxes in Europe: at the start of 2024, it rose from 7% of the room price plus €3 per person to 12.5% of the room rate alone. Combined with the current 9% VAT, and even more so with the projected 21% VAT in 2026, the total fiscal burden on an overnight stay could approach 35%. European studies highlight that high tax levels can erode destination competitiveness, especially for coastal areas, but the exact effect on a metropolis like Amsterdam remains debated, given its strong brand.

Regulating Real Estate Investment Without Stifling It

On the real estate side, the abolition of the favorable tax regime for REITs (FBI) and the tightening of taxation on rental investments have cooled some investors. Yet capital needs remain immense: about 55 billion euros would be needed to finance the mid-market and free-sector rental housing supply, of which nearly 37 billion is not yet covered after accounting for the capacities of social housing companies. Add to that a need for around 65 billion to make all privately owned rental housing “Paris Proof” (energy labels D or lower).

Toward a Better Articulation Between Tourism, Housing, and Sustainability

The Dutch experience shows that tourism can be both a powerful driver of real estate value and a source of acute housing tensions. Policy choices made in Amsterdam, on the coast, and in university cities illustrate the difficulty of balancing international attractiveness, the right to housing, and residents’ quality of life.

Several avenues are emerging to reconcile these goals:

– Better distributing tourist demand across space: by focusing on marketing secondary destinations (medium-sized cities, inland provinces), the country can limit extreme concentration of flows on a few Amsterdam neighborhoods or specific coastal hotspots, while bringing economic benefits to cheaper regions with more available land;

– Channeling part of tourism revenue into affordable housing: international examples show that taxes on accommodations or luxury real estate transactions can fund social or mid-priced housing; in the Netherlands, the significant fiscal yield from tourism could be mobilized more directly to co-finance housing programs in the most pressured areas;

– Involving residents more in planning: the proliferation of local plans like coastal pacts, mandatory consultation for new hotels in Amsterdam, and formal consideration of social acceptability are all signals of more participatory governance, essential to avoid backlash;

The Netherlands, thanks to a tradition of detailed planning and macroeconomic solidity (expected growth around 1.6%, controlled inflation near 2%, AAA rating, very good risk index rankings), has the necessary assets to make these adjustments. But the window of opportunity is narrow: the dual challenge of growing tourism and a lasting housing shortage leaves little room for improvisation.

Ultimately, the impact of tourism on the Dutch real estate market raises a simple but daunting political question: what place should be given to visitors in cities and landscapes where residents already struggle to find housing? The answer will be found neither in rejecting tourism nor in complete laissez-faire, but in a fine-tuned architecture of rules, targeted investments, and local compromises. This is precisely the laboratory, sometimes chaotic but highly instructive, that the Netherlands is currently experimenting with under the eyes of all of Europe.

Cyril Jarnias

Cyril Jarnias is an independent expert in international wealth management with over 20 years of experience. As an expatriate himself, he is dedicated to helping individuals and business leaders build, protect, and pass on their wealth with complete peace of mind.

On his website, cyriljarnias.com, he shares his expertise on international real estate, offshore company formation, and expatriation.

Thanks to his expertise, he offers sound advice to optimize his clients' wealth management. Cyril Jarnias is also recognized for his appearances in many prestigious media outlets such as BFM Business, les Français de l’étranger, Le Figaro, Les Echos, and Mieux vivre votre argent, where he shares his knowledge and know-how in wealth management.

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