Hacker News Reader

Trying to move back to the Netherlands, but I despair of ever trying to buy a house there. Half a million is not uncommon for the area I’m looking :/ and that’s in a tiny suburb half an hour from Amsterdam.

Like, salaries do not seem to have similarly risen, so who the hell is buying these houses?

View on HN

Salaries don't need to raise when interest rates drop. For same payment with lower interest rates you can service much higher principal. For example at 1000€ month 5% rate you could loan 151 525€ but with 1% rate you could loan 217 441€...

True. The problem is that housing prices have risen by several hundred percent.

>Like, salaries do not seem to have similarly risen, so who the hell is buying these houses?

People and institutions looking for a way to 'park' their funds in a safe investment.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com