Previous college Amstelveen broke housing promise, the new really wants to build cheaper

Now that the five aldermen of Amstelveen who will be on the council for the next four years have been installed, they can really start. Herbert Raat (VVD), Adam Elzakalai (VVD), Floor Gordon (D66), Frank Berkhout (D66) and Marijn van Ballegooijen (PvdA) may try to put the ambitions of the coalition agreement into practice.

The composition of the college has hardly changed. VVD member Adam Elzakalai will take the place of Rob Ellermeijer, who passed away earlier this year† One new coalition partner contributed to the agreement, namely Goed voor Amstelveen.

‘Not done enough’

Many Amstelveners consider the housing crisis a hot topic for the next four years, according to research conducted by NH Nieuws in collaboration with Kieskompas in the run-up to the elections.

Amstelveners are critical of the previous lecture when it comes to this theme. Nearly three quarters (72 percent) of those surveyed believe that the council has not done enough to provide affordable housing. Less than ten percent believe that the college has lived up to this promise. The rest are neutral in the subject or have no opinion.

To solve the housing crisis, the previous council considered it especially important to promote mobility and to give first-time buyers a chance on the housing market. To achieve this, the Municipal Executive would ensure that at least half of the homes in each project would fall into the medium-priced rental and owner-occupied sector. In new-build projects, the emphasis had to be ‘on rental and owner-occupied homes in the low-mid-price segment’, according to the agreement at the time.

But which homes, according to the Commission, actually fall under ‘homes in the low-mid-price segment’? These limits change every year in line with the housing market. In the 2018 agreement, a rental home in the low segment was between 710 and 900 euros per month, but that margin is now 763 to 977 euros per month.

Margins also shifted for owner-occupied homes. In 2018, a home in the low-mid-price segment cost a maximum of 310,000 euros, now that is a maximum of 355,000 euros. The table below shows the differences in price limits per segment between 2018 and 2022.

Text continues below image

Too expensive

Of the 15 new-build projects that NH Nieuws has delved into, 11 meet the target that at least half of the homes to be built will be in the medium-priced sector. Four projects therefore do not meet this requirement. The college has therefore been quite successful in fulfilling this promise. Where things went wrong, there were plans mainly to build in the high-mid-price segment, while the emphasis, according to the Commission itself, should have been on the low-mid-price segment.

Of the total number of rental homes being built, 30 percent fall in the low-medium-priced segment. 67 percent is more expensive and 3 percent is social housing. If we look at owner-occupied homes, 22 percent fall under the category of medium-priced homes in the low segment. 66 percent is more expensive and it is still unclear for 12 percent of the planned owner-occupied homes.

The new council seems to have reached the same conclusion, according to the following sentence from the new coalition agreement: “Our starting point is no longer building rental homes in the high-middle segment.” Owner-occupied homes are still desirable in this sector. However, the college does not agree that the previous goal was not achieved, a spokesperson said.

“In our opinion, we succeeded in building low during the previous term of office, especially in the middle-priced segment,” is the response. However, a calculation by the municipality of the distribution of housing in the rental and owner-occupied sector also does not show that the emphasis has been placed on the low segment: 2 percent social, 38 percent medium-term low, 60 percent medium-term middle and above.

The controversial Kronenburg project, which has been put on hold, has not been included in the calculations. The extensive Legmeer project is also not taken into account, because this project is still in its initial phase. The Municipality of Amstelveen sees these projects as promising for the addition of rental homes in the low-middle segment.

Yes, social housing

The call from society for more social rental housing seems to be reaching the new council. The previous council mainly wanted to monitor the current social housing stock. The research in collaboration with Kieskompas shows that 57 percent of the respondents think that the stock is too small.

During this period, the coalition does want to start building socially again. “We give priority to projects with housing in the social segment,” they even write. The distribution for new new construction projects should look like this: on average 20 percent of the city’s social segment, at least two-thirds of new homes in the social and middle segments and about 46 percent of the middle-segment homes should be built in the low-middle segment.

For housing projects on municipal land, the percentage of social housing must be above 30 percent.

11,000 homes

The current council has plenty of opportunities to increase the stock of affordable housing. The plan is to build 11,000 homes by 2040. “Most homes will be completed between 2024 and 2030”, according to a letter from last March.