Amsterdam will oblige owners of homes that have been vacant for more than six months to have their homes occupied as soon as possible. The municipality announced this on Thursday. Homeowners in the municipality of Amsterdam are legally obliged to report vacancy of their property after six months, but until now there were few options for the city to enforce occupancy. With an amendment to the so-called vacancy ordinance, for which the municipality has received temporary permission from the Ministry of the Interior, those options will temporarily be available from 1 September.
Landlords may be required to lower their rent so that the properties can be occupied more quickly. In addition, under the new rules, a home may not be vacant for more than six months pending sale. After six months, the municipality can oblige an owner to apply for a permit for temporary rent or to make the property habitable pending renovation or demolition. Owners who do not comply can be fined up to 8,700 euros.
The Amsterdam alderman for Housing Jakob Wedemeijer thinks that the measure will force owners to rent out homes for a market-based rent. “If there is no demand for expensive rental housing, then the rent simply has to come down,” he reasons. The alderman finds it “inexplicable” that there are empty houses in the city while there is a “housing crisis”.
Vacancy is a major problem in Amsterdam. Last year, about four thousand apartments in the city were empty for a longer period of time, while the housing shortage is high. An Amsterdam rental house costs an average of 22 euros per square meter. The capital therefore has the most expensive rental housing in the free sector.
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