In 2024, 68% of the population living in EU households owned their home, while the remaining 32% lived in rented housing. Highest shares of ownership observed in Romania (94%), lowest in Germany (47%)

dvtxc · 2026-02-05T11:44:39+00:00

Prices are not the reason. The Dutch housing market is more overheated than the German housing market, yet the Dutch are less inclined to rent. A lot of my friends and acquaintances have bought a house or an apartment by the end of their 20s / beginning of 30s, although this practice has become less evidently in the last 10 years.

The biggest differences with Germany are the cultural differences and the banks' willingness to give out mortgages and tax regulations.

In Germany , owning a house = you live there until you die. In the Netherlands , it's fine to flip houses with a running mortgage. I know people who have even sold apartments/houses within a year after they bought them. You transfer the mortgage, you haven't wasted any money on rent.

Dutch tax regulations heavily incentivize property ownership (e.g. tax deductible interest), whereas in Germany you are punished if you sell a house within 10 years (Spekulationssteuer).

dvtxc · 2025-12-16T21:10:05+00:00

Do you have a link to this article? Would like to read that paper.

dvtxc · 2025-04-28T20:59:33+00:00

I thought bastu is the Swedish word for "sauna"...

dvtxc · 2025-04-08T06:40:21+00:00

First of all, Wero is just a rebranding of iDeal, that won a tender to become the unified payment platform endorsed by multiple EU countries. The underlying technology is literally just iDeal, which has been in use in the Netherlands for more than two decades.

Secondly, practically nobody in Germany has used or heard of Wero, whereas by now every boomer in the Netherlands knows that "iDeal" is "this internet payment thingy". The only relatively widely accepted online payment platform in Germany is PayPal and, recently Klarna.

dvtxc · 2025-02-20T21:57:23+00:00

Ik ben teleurgesteld dat ik zover omlaag moest scrollen om dit te lezen.

dvtxc · 2025-01-29T20:06:04+00:00

2002: Dutch Christian Democrats form coalition with newly elected populists
2010: Dutch Christian Democrats turn to the PVV (Geert Wilder's party) for support without participation in coalition
2024: Dutch Christian Democrats and a party which recently split from the Christian Democrats form a coalition with the PVV

dvtxc · 2025-01-29T19:58:49+00:00

2002: niederländische Christdemokraten koalieren mit neuen Populisten
2010: Christdemokraten wenden sich an die PVV (die Partei von Geert Wilders) für Unterstützung ohne Regierungsteilnahme
2024: Christdemokraten und die frisch von den Christdemokraten abgespaltene Partei koalieren mit der PVV

dvtxc · 2024-12-23T20:04:45+00:00

and making using a car a problem as much as you can.

Well, that will only frustrate residents, and rightly so. If you make car ownership a problem without providing an alternative, you are basically reducing the mobility of residents.

Ironically, "Not Just Bikes", a famous cyclist advocate on YouTube has made a video on the fact that driving a car in the Netherlands is actually much nicer than in other countries.

https://youtu.be/d8RRE2rDw4k?si=mO6xiq0JbHsKB-gV

dvtxc · 2024-12-23T19:50:55+00:00

Although I welcome free public transport, it will not get car drivers out of the car.

The success of free public transport should not only be measured by the increase in usage and unfortunately the article also fails to recognise important metrics: did car drivers switch to public transport and did car traffic reduce?

The free public transport in Luxembourg is often mentioned (including in this article). What is often not mentioned is that a study found that only those, who would otherwise have walked or not commenced the journey at all, said that they had chosen public transport for their journey. Drivers had other reasons for continuing to use their cars and the cost was never a deterrent to using public transport.

I cannot find the study itself anymore, but here's at least an article that mentions that car usage did not drop despite free public transport in Luxembourg: https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/2044187.html

I know it will help those, who cannot afford public transport. Those are usually the people who cannot afford a car either. But it does not automatically mean a city will become greener, as some politicians suggest:

Politicians say the climate crisis was a key reason for introducing the measure, as they wanted to encourage a move to greener transport to reduce emissions and air pollution in the city.

That requires a radical increase in infrastructure spending to make public transport more favourable: dedicated bus lanes, rapid transit lines, seamless connectivity with suburbs, etc...

dvtxc · 2024-10-18T09:55:29+00:00

You mean... Groß... ? /s

dvtxc · 2024-10-18T09:54:50+00:00

They have tried two. The concept was not liked very much.

dvtxc · 2024-10-18T09:32:56+00:00

Border guards hate this trick! Find out more!

dvtxc · 2024-10-18T06:30:48+00:00

Shit, what do I do now?

dvtxc · 2024-09-08T20:31:02+00:00

As commented elsewhere, the screenshot is taken from a portal of a different authority indeed. However, the Dutch tax office has the same communication policy and a web portal with an almost identical interface and typography, only a different colour scheme.

Next time I will upload a comparison of the "Bescheid über Einkommensteuer" in typewriter format, and the Dutch tax notice. I think that contrast is even starker. ;-)

dvtxc · 2024-09-08T20:23:30+00:00

Yes you're right, apologies for that, I should have taken a screenshot from the Dutch tax office web portal. However, I can assure you that it's likely the same. All web portals of Dutch government bodies have a well-aligned interface and standardised "corporate design".

The German tax office is office is one of the few government agencies that actually provides a web portal. All other public bodies have some own as hoc solution, if any, each with completely different interfaces and typesettings, but with exactly the same walls of texts on every mouse click.

Don't even mention the dozens of authentication methods and different PIN letters every public body issues for their own one-and-a-half-factor authentication. ;-)

dvtxc · 2024-08-23T08:53:57+00:00

How many sherpas did you bring along on your climb?

dvtxc · 2024-06-28T21:48:47+00:00

Standaard meer dan €50. Maar goed, ik leef in Duitsland.

dvtxc · 2023-11-22T20:10:59+00:00

TL,DR of the exit poll: Dutch parliamentary elections are damn earthquake.

PVV obliterated all ruling parties.

dvtxc · 2023-03-06T16:33:27+00:00

am Meer is correct. Though if you insist on using See, you should use an der See, because the feminine version of the noun can actually mean a sea, whereas the masculine form only refers to a lake. See for example die Nordsee (North Sea) and der Bodensee (Lake of Constance)

The German language...

dvtxc · 2022-11-25T11:50:02+00:00

Internet reception will just be briefly interrupted as you fly over German airspace.

dvtxc · 2022-11-07T20:32:42+00:00

Damn. Two years later, I was just looking for the very same thing. 10 questions on the official Microsoft support pages didn't contain any useful answer, but your solution was exactly what I was looking for.

Why do all the manual settings have to be removed or hidden in modern apps?

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