CBS podcast examines inheritances and the housing market

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) has made inheritances and the housing market the subject of a new podcast episode. The episode lists a call with Jona van Loenen and a discussion of the figures, but the question of what inheritances will mean for the wider market remains open. [1]

In a separate study, CBS found that 21% of people who inherited at least €50,000 after a parent died in 2018 moved during 2018–20. The figure was 15% in a comparison group whose parents died four years later and who then inherited at least €50,000. Among those who moved, the share living in an owner-occupied home rose from 72% to 83% in the inheritance group, compared with 71% to 73% in the comparison group. [2]

CBS also reports that the share living in homes with solar panels rose more sharply in the inheritance group: from 10% to 25%, against 10% to 21% in the comparison group. That does not show whether heirs paid for panels with inherited money. CBS says it has no data on other possible improvements to their homes. The findings concern these groups, rather than a forecast for the housing market as a whole. [2]