Dutch households have recently started to invest in several high-profile IPOs, including the spaceflight company SpaceX, the industrial and defence conglomerate CSG, and the ice-cream manufacturer Magnum. Overall, households enjoyed an exceptionally good second quarter: the total value of their portfolio investments rose by 12%, the sharpest increase since DNB began tracking these figures.
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A number of well-known companies in both the United States and Europe have recently gone public. For example, following the largest ever initial public offering, SpaceX has been listed since June on the NASDAQ – the US stock exchange where tech companies in particular are traded. In the Netherlands, Magnum was listed separately on the stock exchange following its demerger from Unilever at the end of 2025, and the Czech defence company Czechoslovak Group (CSG) was listed in January.
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.
During the launch month, Dutch households bought €169 million worth of SpaceX shares. This was the highest total value of purchases in a share’s first month of trading since records began in December 2018. At the same time, Dutch households sold €100 million worth of SpaceX shares during the first month of trading, possibly to cash in on the price gains made in the first few days.
Following a sharp rise in the share price during the first few weeks and a subsequent fall, the share was trading around a quarter higher than the initial public offering price by the end of the month. The total value of SpaceX shares held by Dutch households at the end of June stood at €71 million, after taking into account sales, share price gains and exchange rate effects. This is roughly the same as for CSG: household portfolio holdings stood at €72 million at the end of the month of its launch.
Households were most inclined to hold onto shares of Magnum following its IPO, with a total value of €100 million in their portfolios at the end of the first month of trading. It should be noted, however, that approximately two-thirds of the value stemmed from shares acquired by Unilever shareholders following the demerger of the two companies.
The total value of Dutch households’ investments in shares, investment fund positions and bonds rose by more than 12% to € 234.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026. This is the largest increase in a single quarter since DNB began tracking these figures at year-end 2018. The second and fourth quarters of 2020 each saw an increase of 11%.
Share prices are the driving force behind this year’s exceptional increase. Share prices have risen sharply in recent months, and households have benefited as a result. Transactions (+€1.5 billion) and exchange rate effects (+€437 million) had a much more limited impact.
Households’ positions in investment funds rose to €153.0 billion, driven mainly by positive developments on the stock market. Around a quarter of the increase was due to net purchases. Households sold €3.4 billion worth of directly held shares, while the aggregate value of household portfolios rose to €74.7 billion. Bond holdings rose by €206 million to €6.4 billion. This increase was fully attributable to net purchases.
Among individual shares, the rise in value of households’ investments in ASML stands out. Although households sold ASML shares worth a net total of €613 million, a price rise of more than 50% meant that the value of households’ direct investments in ASML rose to €6 billion.
The total securities holdings of Dutch households consisted of listed shares, investment fund shares and bonds totalling €234.2 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2026. By comparison, Dutch households keep far more funds in savings accounts with Dutch banks (€552.6 billion) than in investment portfolios. They also hold €113.2 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 households in the Netherlands. Of these, around a quarter (2.2 million) hold portfolio investments, according to research (in Dutch) conducted by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM).
Dashboard: Securities holdings of Dutch households
21 May 2026
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