Largest price increase in sixteen years drives starters to smart alternatives

Situations such as marriage, cohabitation or family expansion create a new situation that forces one to move. However, finding a suitable house or flat is not always easy.

There are many factors to consider, but the most important factor remains the budget and the mortgage to obtain.

This article explains why many start-ups rent a storage unit and thus not only avoid financial problems but also make things easy for themselves.

Ever-rising rental and purchase prices in big cities a tough sell for first-time home buyers

The ever-rising rental and purchase prices in the centre of big cities pose a lot of problems for first-time buyers and other house seekers. Rental prices in cities such as Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam in the Netherlands or Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent in Belgium are definitely no exception.

Rental and purchase prices have gone through the roof in recent years, making it increasingly difficult for first-time buyers to secure a suitable home. According to CBS, existing houses for sale were 8.8% more expensive in January than in January 2017. This is the biggest price rise in 16 years.

As a result, many young families are looking for a property just outside the city centre. This way, they do not live too far from the city centre, but can still, within their budget, find a suitable home. These huge rent increases in the Randstad seem to be the rule rather than the exception in the coming years.

Because of these extreme rent increases in recent years, the group of potential tenants is getting smaller and smaller, so more and more people will (have to) seek refuge just outside. A good and smart alternative, which is being used more and more, is to rent or buy a house in the Randstad and rent cheap storage space.

In fact, we see more and more people opting for a smaller property in the city as the area they would like to rent or buy is too expensive. In order to be able to store all their belongings, they increasingly rent cheap external storage units, which is obviously cheaper than renting or buying a larger property.

External storage space rental in the Randstad only cheap solution

The latest trend in this area is that more and more people rent a permanent storage unit close to their home that they can access at any time. This way, they always have the things they want at hand.

A quick calculation shows that the average m² price in Amsterdam is between €3000 and €6000, so it quickly becomes unaffordable to buy the larger home one has in mind.

A storage unit in Amsterdam costs on average between €10 and €20 per m², depending on the number of m². This makes it many times cheaper if, for example, you buy a 60 m² house and rent 10m2 of storage space, which you can cancel each month.

Renting permanent storage space is therefore becoming increasingly popular in the Randstad.

Especially if the old house has already been sold, but due to the craze on the housing market, a new suitable home has not yet been found immediately, cheap storage space also offers a temporary solution.

This phenomenon is getting worse and worse. In many provinces, it is already so high that rental prices have reached the “ceiling”, Jasper De Groot (Director of rental housing site Pararius) said. Depending on which periphery one is looking for, prices rose between 3 – 5.4%.

So renting a storage unit can be a good solution. Prices vary enormously but usually you pay around €100.00/month for a 10 m² space.