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Update on Spaargroeihypotheek and Meegroeihypotheek mortgage products

On Monday 15 April, ABN AMRO’s mortgage products Spaargroeihypotheek and Meegroeihypotheek and the linked life insurance policies were featured on Dutch TV, in consumer watchdog programme Radar. A number of clients approached Radar because the amount of the death benefit paid under their product’s life insurance component turned out to be lower than they had expected. Do you have questions about your own situation? This article provides further information.

News item15 April 2019

Softer price rises in heated housing market

House prices should keep rising until 2021 but the advance is likely to soften in the next two years, ABN AMRO’s Group Economics argues in its first Housing Market Monitor for 2019.

News item09 January 2019

First rulings by the Dutch Banking Disciplinary Committee on revised mortgage advice

On Friday 17 August 2018, the Dutch Banking Disciplinary Committee ruled on ten of the 76 outstanding cases in the revised mortgage advice proceedings. The ten employees, who are all working as mortgage advisors, have been barred from practising their profession for periods of two, four or six weeks, depending on how often they copied signatures.

News item21 August 2018

AFM publishes guidelines for early mortgage repayment charges: ABN AMRO’s response

The new regulations for mortgage loans introduced on 14 July 2016 changed the rules for calculating the costs that mortgage lenders may charge retail clients for early mortgage repayments. The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Nederlandse Autoriteit Financiële Markten, ‘AFM’) has now drawn up a set of guidelines for mortgages lenders with principles for calculating the early repayment charge. These guidelines were published today (20 March 2017).

News item20 March 2017

Calculator with documents and miniature house

ABN AMRO’s method of calculating penalty interest works to the client’s advantage

ABN AMRO charges its clients the lowest penalty interest for early repayment on their mortgages. Despite claims to the contrary in the 12 September 2016 episode of the Dutch television programme Radar, ABN AMRO does not charge its clients an excessive penalty interest.

News item14 September 2016

ABN AMRO’s reaction to news about penalty interest

Various media have recently published reports and commentaries in response to the introduction of new Dutch regulations on charging clients a fee (penalty interest) for making extra payments on, or for early repayment of, their mortgage loans.

News item23 August 2016

Homeownership beyond a third of younger adults through lack of capital

Almost a third of younger adults between the ages of 18 and 35 looking to buy a house expect that this will be beyond them for the next two years. They report that they do not have any capital of their own to pay the additional costs of buying a house. This is the finding from a survey that ABN AMRO conducted among younger adults between the ages of 18 and 35 who are seriously considering buying a house. Maximums for home loans are falling year by year and in many cases the mortgage does not leave enough room for additional costs such as the fees of civil-law notaries and estate agents. One solution is to ask parents for financial assistance: more than a third of younger adults say that they have asked their parents for money.

News item14 June 2016

ABN AMRO lowers two-year fixed mortgage rate to less than 1%

ABN AMRO is set to lower its interest rate for two-year fixed-rate mortgages to 0.99 per cent starting on Friday 27 May. The current interest rate is 1.7 per cent.

News item25 May 2016

ABN AMRO does not recognise Homeowners’ Association’s calculations

The Dutch Homeowners’ Association (Vereniging Eigen Huis, VEH) today stated in various media that banks have made increasing profits on mortgages in recent months. The Homeowners’ Association bases its statement on periodic research conducted by the University of Amsterdam.

News item11 January 2016

ABN AMRO announces interest rate averaging for mortgages

ABN AMRO today announced that it will offer its mortgage clients interest rate averaging as soon as possible.

News item07 December 2015

ABN AMRO joins ‘Work Prospects Statement’ pilot to help flexible workers applying for a mortgage

ABN AMRO is to take part in a pilot project for the ‘Work Prospects Statement’, to enable people with flexible employment contracts to obtain a mortgage.

News item02 December 2015

ABN AMRO and Florius to grant mortgages to workers without permanent contracts

From late November forward, it will become easier for workers with flexible employment contracts to find a mortgage: ABN AMRO and Florius are set to join a pilot (initiated by Obvion, Randstad and Dutch homeowners’ association Vereniging Eigen Huis (VEH)) where a statement of prospects is used as the basis for establishing income security. Previously, mortgage applications of workers with flexible employment contracts were considered based on their job security.

News item06 October 2015

From offices to homes

ABN AMRO and real estate firm Caransa Groep this week signed a financing agreement for the transformation of 7,000 square metres of office space into homes. The office premises are located in the Pijp district of Amsterdam. The two signed the agreement at the Provada real estate fair in Amsterdam.

News item04 June 2015

ABN AMRO rectifies penalty interest calculated on mortgages

On 11 May 2015, the Dutch news programme Radar will report on the calculation of penalty interest on mortgages. The show will feature cases of ABN AMRO clients for whom the penalty interest was calculated incorrectly. There is also a discussion on the interpretation of older general conditions for penalty interest, and clients believe the calculation is not transparent.

News item11 May 2015

Residential construction expected to pick up on the heels of housing market recovery

Initial recovery of residential construction visible from early 2015. Vast potential for senior-citizen and single-person household housing market. Housing demand could be met by renovation of existing buildings as well as new construction.

News item10 December 2014