Since 2023, thirty municipalities in Noord-Holland and Flevoland have been working together with the provinces and the government to build considerably more homes. Up to and including 2030, they want to realize more than 170,000 new homes under the flag of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region, two thirds of which are affordable homes.
Due to the announced rental freezing of the cabinet, this home deal is now in danger, the local drivers write to the House of Representatives. According to them, freezing social rents costs so much money that more than a third of the new construction of social rental homes cannot take place.
“We see that the freezing will cause problems for our housing associations,” says the spokesperson for the municipality of Haarlemmermeer. “And we need the housing associations to fill in the housing requirements of our residents.”
Renting should not rise
The rental freezing is an initiative of the coalition parties. Previous months they decided in the spring memorandum that the social rents should not rise next year. PVV leader Geert Wilders also called the rental freezing ‘the shopping bonus’.
Housing corporations responded stunned to the decision. Due to the rental freezing, they miss out on income so that they can borrow much less money to invest. They therefore fear that the construction of tens of thousands of social rental properties cannot continue.
Fear of large projects
Now the Amsterdam Metropool Region (MRA) says that they share the concerns of the housing associations. According to the MRA spokesperson, housing associations in the region will be able to invest up to 6.5 billion less until 2035.
This not only affects social rental homes – according to the MRA, the more expensive rental segment is also in trouble. Social rent is often part of larger construction projects, which also includes more expensive rental properties. The metropolitan region warns: if corporations no longer have any money for social rent, the construction of those more expensive homes is also at stake.
Court case
About two hundred housing associations have announced that they prepare a lawsuit against residential minister Mona Keijzer. The Minister Wonen previously hinted that she was not completely behind the decision to freeze the rents. Next Wednesday, the committee will debate with Keijzer about the rental freezing.