Rents in the unregulated housing sector are rising again after dropping for the past year, according to the latest quarterly report by housing platform Pararius.

On average rents for new contracts were up 2.5% year on year and rose in all five big Dutch cities – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Eindhoven and Utrecht.

In Amsterdam, where rents outside the rent-controlled sector fell 7% in the second quarter, the price of a square metre rose by 1.6% to €22.44 – or an average of €1,485 for a 65 square metre flat.

Prices rose most – 8% – in Eindhoven, taking a new contract for a 65 square meter flat to €965. In Utrecht rents rose 5%, in The Hague and Rotterdam 2%.

The fall in rents over the past year was prompted by coronavirus related travel restrictions which kept some international workers out of the country, as well virtually halting tourism-related rentals, Pararius said. In some cases, landlords reduced prices to fill their properties, but now that travel restrictions have been largely lifted, they are putting up prices again.

‘We’ve noticed an enormous increase in the number of contact and information requests via the English version of our website, so it is only logical that rents have risen again in the past quarter,’ Pararius chief executive Jasper de Groot said.

The shortage of housing which falls outside the regulated sector – just 7% of the total market – is also helping to force prices up, he said. The current political focus on increasing the supply of social housing – with a rent of below €752 – is not going to change this situation, De Groot said.