Buying your own land in the Netherlands: how does that work?
Buying your own land is receiving a lot of interest. On the one hand, the current housing shortage is creating a growing demand for plots. And on the other hand, there is growing interest in land as an investment. Buying private land represents an investment with a lower risk than, say, shares. Previous articles on Milanium.eu have already explained that buying your own piece of land can be a good investment. In short, the advantages come down to this: land is insensitive to fluctuations in the business cycle in the long term; it retains its value.
And in addition, investments in land show stable value development. But how does the process of buying land work in general? We explain that in this article.
Buying your own land: making a first choice
Searching for a plot of your own land starts with answering the question of what you want to use the land for. Is the land meant to be built on, for recreation or as an investment?
This is because all land in the Netherlands has a designated use. This is laid down in the zoning plan and is drawn up by the government. The zoning plan describes how the land must be used and whether it may be built on, for example. It makes a big difference whether land is zoned for agriculture, nature or housing. The designated use largely determines the value and thus the price of the land. A plot of land which is designated for residential use is worth much more than a plot of woodland. Building land sometimes costs as much as €1,000 per square metre, but a hectare of woodland costs only €10,000 on average. Woodland and agricultural land are often offered for sale by the hectare, while building land is sold in much smaller plots. This does not mean that it is always necessary to buy land by the hectare or more. It is, of course, possible to approach the owner of land with the request that they offer part of the land for sale. The land registry can help with this.
Land registry
Land owners are registered with the Land Registry. For example, the Dutch National Forest Service (Staatsbosbeheer) is the largest big landowner in the Netherlands. It manages 220 thousand hectares of land. The vast majority of this comprises (protected) nature reserves. Furthermore, the Dutch government is a large large landowner, with several ministries owning land. Land registry data makes it possible to contact a landowner. And it may be possible to purchase part of the land. The land registry is then also responsible for measuring the new plot of land. When the buyer and seller agree on the price and size of the plot and this has been measured and recorded by the land registry, the notary is the next step. The notary draws up the purchase contract and after completing the transaction, the notary office registers the new owner of the land in the land registry again.
Land as an investment
Like Funda for houses, there are websites available in the Netherlands where land is offered for sale. These often involve larger plots of many hectares. Such plots are less suitable for smaller, private investors. As described earlier, it is of course possible to approach the owner and investigate whether buying a smaller plot is possible. An alternative is to purchase land through Milanium. We offer the opportunity to buy a plot based on the available investment budget. In doing so, we offer a choice of ‘hot’ plots of agricultural land. These are plots of land whose zoning plan is due to be redefined in the short term.
The entire purchase process is taken care of by Milanium’s advisers.
Would you like to find out more about the opportunities for investing in land? Make an appointment free of commitment with one of our advisers.
