In the fourth quarter of 2024, Dutch households’ portfolio investments reached a new record high of €192.4 billion, as revealed by the latest DNB figures. The increase is entirely due to rising stock market prices, as households also sold a significant amount of their securities holdings.
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This marks the third quarter in a row that the securities holdings of Dutch households have set a new record. In the third quarter of 2024, these investments were worth €191.7 billion.
At De Nederlandsche Bank, we independently compile statistics on the Dutch financial sector and economy. This article is based on these statistics. More information on our statistics and all dashboards can be found on our Statistics homepage.
This gain can mainly be attributed to value increases of US shares and equity funds. The value of households’ investments in US listed shares grew by around 10% compared to the third quarter of 2024, to €17.5 billion. Dutch households benefited from both the bullish stock markets in the United States and the appreciation of the dollar against the euro. The ‘exchange rate effect’ of the stronger US dollar meant a higher investment value when expressed in euro.
In total, Dutch households held €64.9 billion worth of listed shares as at the end of 2024. Investment fund shares amounted to €121.7 billion, and bond holdings came to €5.8 billion.
The new securities holding record was entirely due to increases in the value of investments, as on balance households sold €1.6 billion worth of securities. The fourth quarter of 2023 was the only quarter in which households disposed of more investments; at the time, these sales amounted to €4.7 billion.
Dutch households sold mostly directly held debt securities (i.e. bonds), worth €1.3 billion. These disposals took place after several interest rate cuts by central banks in the second half of 2024.
Besides debt securities, households also sold nearly €750 million worth of listed shares, while also investing nearly €400 million in investment funds. Net disposals thus came to €1.6 billion.
The total securities holdings of Dutch households consisted of listed shares, investment fund shares and bonds totalling €192.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. By comparison, Dutch households keep far more funds in savings accounts with Dutch banks (€487.1 billion) than in investment portfolios. They also hold €113.4 billion in payment accounts with Dutch banks. Added to this are substantial assets kept with pension funds and insurers, business assets of self-employed persons and home equity, which fall outside direct securities holdings.
According to figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), there are 8.4 million private households in the Netherlands. Of these, around a quarter (1.9 million) hold portfolio investments, according to research (in Dutch) conducted by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM).
Table 4.6: Investments by Dutch households in securities (also available through our API)
Dashboard: Securities holdings of Dutch households
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