Agent-based modeling of the Dutch housing market

Abstract

There currently is a crisis in the Dutch housing market. We believe the main cause of this crisis is a high housing shortage. As a result rents and buying prices are high. We also observe a lock-in effect where people cannot move out of their houses even if they want to. However, if the Netherlands would have the same m2 per person as Germany there is enough space to house everyone. Using an agent-based model we research if policies that reduce the m2 per person counter the effects of the housing crisis. Using this model we conclude that this is not necessarily true. It seems that reducing the m2 per person is not the most important factor in countering the housing crisis. We believe that it is more important to create extra houses. Our model indicates that this is possible without constructing extra new-built houses.