House prices in the Netherlands have jumped 15% since 2023, while the number of completed new dwellings fell by 20%. First-time buyers now need two decades of saving to afford a starter home in major cities. This is not supply and demand working freely. This is a broken system.

Most commentators blame the market for the housing crisis. They call for more social housing, rent caps, and speculation taxes. None of this addresses the real problem: the Dutch government has made it nearly impossible to build. Zoning rules are medieval. Building permits take years. Local councils veto developments to protect the property values of current homeowners.

Amsterdam approved only 3,400 new homes in 2024, while 8,000 families joined the waiting list. Utrecht faces the same gap. The Dutch state controls who can build where, when, and how many units. When the state restricts supply and then complains about high prices, the problem is not the market. It is the state.

Subsidies for social housing often make things worse. They kill the incentive to build normal apartments because the money flows only to projects labeled "social." Meanwhile, zoning laws force houses to spread out, which raises building costs and lowers density. The rules prevent exactly what is needed: dense, mixed-income apartment blocks.

Deregulation is the only way out. The Netherlands must let builders build. Zoning must open. Permits must shrink from years to months. Speculation taxes will do nothing. More rules will do nothing. Only fewer rules and more construction will solve this.