The Netherlands is just too rich that it is working against itself. We have created a society where every person wants their own house- 17 million people 10 million houses. And the Netherlands is a magnet for migrants- compared to most of the world the streets are paved with gold.
And no matter how much the prices go up people can and will pay. Unless there's a mayor economic recession things will not get better.
Wait, you’re making it sound like this is an obvious case of not enough supply — which could potentially be solved by building more homes! — but in fact, it’s the total opposite: the average Dutch household has 2.14 people, so that’s 8 million households vs. 10 million houses! (I assume this is overwhelmingly folks who want to live together: partners, kids, etc., not just folks who can’t afford to live alone.)
Sounds to me like there are 2 million extra houses, not 7 million missing ones.
So what, exactly, causes the problem? Presumably, those 2m extra houses just aren’t in the right places?
People pay because it is still the best choice for the non-financially-savvy to secure their net worth given the policies our government has made the past few years. Someone else already explained how renting costs way more, and people would argue the break-even point for renting vs buying is only about 1 to 2 years. That's without taking into account all the restrictions landlords are putting up.
Once you get past the hurdle, banks give you insane amounts of money to buy these insanely priced houses with. And due to the low rent, you're not that much worse off than 5 years ago. Since no one who buys a house today wants to end up losing out, many homeowners will vehemently oppose any measure which could make the prices sink, so more borrowed money, so even higher prices as long as there isn't a suitable alternative (cheaper/affordable and easy to attain rent).
And no matter how much the prices go up people can and will pay. Unless there's a mayor economic recession things will not get better.