Spain builds for active seniors. The Netherlands builds mostly for care.

The Netherlands has approximately 3.8 million residents aged 65 or older. By 2040, that figure will rise to nearly 5 million: one in four Dutch residents will be a senior. By 2040, an estimated 35.4% of all households will be headed by someone aged 65 or older.

The government wants to deliver 290,000 senior housing units by the end of 2030: 170,000 step-free homes, 80,000 clustered living arrangements, and 40,000 nursing care places.

In 2024, approximately 4,000 were built. That is 1.4% of the target.

The problem is not the ambition. The problem is the product.

The comparison

Spain is ageing faster than the Netherlands. More than one fifth of the Spanish population is already over 65. By 2050, that share is projected to exceed 30%. Spain currently has around 389,000 beds in senior care facilities across approximately 5,300 locations. According to JLL , at least 237,000 additional beds will be needed by 2035.

But the real difference is not in care capacity.

The difference is in how each country defines the market for active, independent seniors.

Spain also attracts a second target group: Northern European seniors who want to live in Spain for part of the year or permanently. That demand concentrates around Málaga, Madrid, Alicante, Tenerife and Barcelona. Málaga alone has a pipeline of 1,694 new senior living units in development.

The Spanish senior living market is still at an early stage, but investment appetite is strong. Projects with planned investment exceeding €600 million are in development. Estimates for total investment needs through 2040 run as high as €25 billion. The Netherlands has little to set against that: the private senior living market is fragmented, institutional capital is barely present, and supply structurally fails to match what the target group is looking for.

Care and housing are not the same thing

In the Netherlands, the discussion about senior housing almost always starts with care.

But 40% of homeowners aged 55 and older want to move to a smaller, future-proof home, according to Vereniging Eigen Huis in a survey of more than 82,500 respondents. These are people who do not need intensive care. They are looking for a step-free home, safety, comfort, social contact, services, and the option to add care later.

Yet construction is stalling. CBRE concluded in 2025 that the one-sided focus on affordable senior housing is not working: the supply does not match the housing preferences of seniors with equity, which leads them to choose to stay put.

That is precisely the problem. Not a shortage of willingness to move. A shortage of a product that makes the move worth taking.

The missing market

For seniors with low incomes, social rental housing exists. For the very wealthy, luxury residences are available. In between sits a large group of homeowners with significant equity and almost no attractive options.

A senior living product for that group looks nothing like a care complex. It combines 70 to 120 square metres of private space with a well-equipped kitchen, spacious bathroom, guest accommodation, a shared living room, a restaurant or brasserie, fitness and wellness facilities, housekeeping services, a concierge, on-call care and an active community.

That is not a care home with a rebrand. That is hospitality combined with residential living.

Classic Experience from The Experience Net is built on that logic: a living environment that fits an active life stage, not a care need. The positioning is deliberate: the next chapter, not the last one.

The housing chain starts here

A senior who moves out of a large family home leaves that home behind. A family moves in. Their home becomes available for a first-time buyer. One well-designed senior residence can trigger multiple moves.

That makes senior housing potentially more effective than building starter homes directly. But the product has to be right.

The Netherlands Court of Audit noted in May 2025 that the shortage of suitable housing for older adults is blocking mobility across the broader housing market. Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors calculated that by 2040, 35.4% of all households will be aged 65 or older, while senior housing delivery is falling far behind the stated ambition. An additional 1 million people aged 65 or older are expected in the Netherlands by 2040.

The challenge is therefore not only social. It is mechanical.

What the Netherlands can learn from Spain

Spain is increasingly treating senior living as a standalone residential and operational market, not solely as care real estate. Projects are developed with the operator at the table from day one. The target group defines the programme, not care legislation.

Spain also actively attracts international demand. Northern European seniors are a structural target group for the coastal provinces and islands. The Netherlands does not have that international demand, but can adopt the operational model.

In concrete terms, that means the Netherlands needs to stop treating senior housing exclusively as a care challenge. Build for the mid-market and upper segment too. Make hospitality and services a fixed part of the residential product. Develop on recognisable locations close to amenities. And measure success by the number of homes that become available through moves, not only by the number of new units added.

What Spain can learn from the Netherlands

Spain has a lower share of social rental housing than the Netherlands: less than 2% of total stock. That means affordability in the Spanish senior living market remains a structural problem. New concepts in Madrid and Barcelona are primarily accessible to wealthy and international seniors. Local older adults on average incomes are priced out.

The Netherlands has housing corporations and a broader public housing stock that provide more instruments to protect affordability. That public infrastructure does not exist in Spain. It is also why the Spanish government announced a €7 billion investment programme in 2026 to expand the public housing supply.

A mixed model, combining affordable clustered housing with attractive mid-market products for active seniors, is the lesson both countries can learn from each other.

The conclusion

Seniors do not move because they are told they should live in less space. They move when the new product is more attractive than what they already have.

Not less living. Better living.

That is where mobility starts. And that is where the 290,000 homes the Netherlands says it wants to build, but has barely begun to deliver, are waiting to happen.

This is the third article in a series in which TEN compares European housing markets with the Netherlands.

Sources: CBS, population projection 2040 (nearly 5 million residents aged 65+; 35.4% of all households). Dutch Government, Programme Housing and Care for Older Adults (290,000 senior homes by end of 2030). CBRE, Senior Housing Netherlands 2025. Netherlands Court of Audit, accountability research 2024 on senior housing. Bouwinvest Research, housing market report 2025. ABF Research, Primos Housing with Care Forecast 2025. Vereniging Eigen Huis, survey of 82,500 homeowners aged 55+. Colliers, Healthcare Spain Report 2025 (€600M+ in development; shortage of specialised operators). JLL, Healthcare and Later Living Spain 2023-2025 (389,000 beds; 237,000 additional needed by 2035). Atlas Real Estate Analytics, senior living pipeline Spain (Málaga 1,694 units). Arum Group / Urbanitae, estimated €3 billion investment requirement Spain by 2026.