Most Dutch home buyers face unfair bidding, study finds

Two-thirds of people who bid on a Dutch home in 2025 were not sent the official record that shows whether the bidding process was fair, according to new research published by homeowners’ association Vereniging Eigen Huis (VEH), which is now calling on the government to put the bidding process into law.

The biedlogboek, or bid log, was introduced in 2023 as part of a joint plan between the housing ministry and the sector to restore trust in the buying process. It is supposed to give buyers a record, after the sale, of every bid placed on a property, the amount, and any conditions attached, so they can check whether the agent handled bids fairly.

VEH found that just 32% of 2025 bidders received the log book after the sale, and 41% of those had to actively chase the agent for it.

The association says new reports to its complaints hotline, which it reopened in February, show systemic problems: bidders pressured by competing offers that didn’t check out, winning bids entered after the deadline or by the agent themselves, and logs missing bids or conditions.

“The bid log only works if it works the same way for everyone and is shared automatically,” said VEH director Cindy Kremer. “As long as it isn’t uniform, complete and consistently applied, consumers gain too little from it.”

Pressure on the cabinet

VEH wants the bidding process codified in law along the lines of NTA 8061, a technical standard published by Dutch standardisation body NEN in April 2025.

The NTA rules out the bidding method in which the agent can see incoming bids in real time. Vastgoed Nederland and the housing ministry signed up; the country’s largest estate agents’ association, NVM, refused and runs its own system instead.

Pressure on the cabinet has been building. In June 2025 parliament passed a motion from PVV MP Jeremy Mooiman calling for a statutory quality standard for all estate agents.

Housing minister Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan is now reviewing regulatory options and is due to present her plans to parliament this summer. Both NVM and Vastgoed Nederland have told broadcaster NOS they would not oppose legal regulation.