From now on it is a lot easier to split a home in the municipality of Aa and Hunze. The municipality has relaxed the rules, so that residents can divide their building into several residential units. With this step, the municipality wants to illuminate the pressure on the housing market and make it possible for the elderly to live longer in their familiar environment.
The relaxation stems from a motion that was adopted by the city council in November 2024. The three coalition parties VVD, PvdA and Gemeentebelangen asked for wider possibilities for housing splitting, and that has now been responded to. Among the new rules, among other things, the minimum surface requirement for main buildings expires. It is also possible to split buildings into more than two homes.
According to alderman Ivo Berghuis (Municipal Interests), the new regulation yields profit for several groups in society. “With this change we not only create more living space, but we also provide more options for, for example, seniors to continue to live in their familiar environment,” he says. Young people who want to stay in their native village also benefit from the new scheme.
An important advantage of splitting is that no new homes need to be built to realize extra living space. This is in line with the wishes of many residents to deal with existing buildings more efficiently. At the same time, the municipality promises to continue to strictly monitor the spatial quality of the outlying area, so that the characteristic landscape of AA and Hunze is preserved.
The new policy rules mainly apply to the outskirts of the municipality. It is precisely where there are many large buildings that are hardly used for complete habitation in practice. By scrapping the minimum square meteris, smaller buildings can now also be split, provided they meet urban development and cultural -historical requirements.
GroenLinks previously warned of the risk of ‘cluttering’ of public spaces. The municipality explicitly takes this into account. The permit procedure tests for appearance, integration into the landscape and preserving historical elements. In this way the municipality wants to create living space without compromising the quality of the landscape.
The new rules are not yet final. The draft policy rules will be available for inspection for inspection from 22 May. Residents and stakeholders will have the opportunity to submit an opinion during that period. Those responses are then taken into account in the final decision of the Mayor and Aldermen.