Mortgage market settles, but the single buyer puts in more than 63,000 euro

After a difficult start to the year, the mortgage market found calmer water in the second quarter of 2026. That sounds like good news, and in part it is. But anyone who looks at the figures from the Dutch mortgage data network HDN sees an uncomfortable development behind that stabilisation. Anyone buying a home on their own has to dig ever deeper into their own savings.

Fewer applications, higher prices

HDN, the platform through which practically all Dutch mortgage applications pass, recorded 132,877 applications last quarter. That is almost 5 percent fewer than in the same quarter of 2025. Looking only at applications to buy a home, the fall is slightly larger at 6 percent: 81,077 applications.

At the same time prices simply kept rising. The average property value came in at 532,100 euro according to HDN, almost 5 percent higher than a year earlier. And here it gets interesting. The average mortgage amount barely moved with it: up 1 percent, to 376,600 euro. So the gap between what a home costs and what buyers borrow is widening. That difference has to come from somewhere. Out of their own pocket, to be precise.

The supply of affordable homes around three hundred thousand euro has shrunk over the past year.

Why the market is cooling

There are several reasons why fewer mortgages are being applied for. Mortgage rates rose in the second quarter, reducing the maximum borrowing capacity of many households. If you can borrow less, you postpone the purchase or drop out.

On top of that, the wave of rental sell-offs is drying up. Last year many investors put their rental homes on the market in numbers, temporarily increasing the supply of affordable homes. That flow is now easing. The consequence is predictable: supply has shrunk precisely in the segment around 300,000 euro, exactly where first-time buyers and single buyers are looking.

There is one bright spot. Advisory chain Van Bruggen reports that almost all lenders cut their fixed rates last week, often in slightly larger steps than usual. The average ten-year rate with the national guarantee fell from 3.95 to 3.90 percent. That drop appears to be linked mainly to the ceasefire between the United States and Iran, which restored calm on the capital markets.

The average property value rose to 532,100 euro, almost 5 percent more than a year earlier.

The solo buyer pays the bill

The most striking figures concern single buyers. Applications from this group fell by 13 percent, more than twice as fast as the market as a whole. And yet solo buyers remain the largest customer profile in the buyers' market.

Those who do press ahead on their own bring substantial savings: 63,663 euro on average. That is almost 12 percent more than a year ago and the highest amount of all first-time buyer profiles. On average, single first-time buyers finance 18 percent of the property value from their own funds.

"We see a mortgage market moving into calmer water, but behind that stabilisation lies a clear development," says HDN director Reinier van der Heijden. "Single buyers in particular have to dig ever deeper into their own pockets to buy a home. That shows once again how great the pressure on affordability has become."

Single first-time buyers finance 18 percent of the property value from their own funds on average.

What does this mean for the housing market?

Let us be honest: sixty thousand euro in savings, where does the average first-time buyer find that? For most single buyers that amount does not come from a few years of careful saving. It comes from a gift from parents, an earlier house sale or an inheritance. Anyone without that safety net is left on the sidelines.

That creates a divide that runs deeper than the familiar gap between single and dual earners. Within the group of single buyers, too, the gap is growing between those who can draw on capital and those who have only their income. The HDN figures show that the second group is quietly dropping out. A fall of 13 percent is no longer statistical noise.

For the second half of 2026 the picture is mixed. The slightly falling rate gives some air, and the cooling market takes the worst heat out of the bidding. But as long as prices rise faster than borrowing capacity, savings remain the entry ticket to the housing market. And that is a ticket not everyone holds.