News item | 01-30-2024 | 09:49
An extra floor with apartments on a 3-storey flat, a young person who finds a room in the house of a landlady and an older couple who live in an informal care home in their child’s garden. Better use of the existing stock is desperately needed to solve the enormous housing shortage.
This can be done in various ways: by creating more homes in and on existing buildings, by making sharing a home easier and by promoting traffic flow between homes. A major advantage of better utilization: the locations are already there.
“The housing shortage can also be addressed by making better use of existing buildings. We do not have the luxury of passing up these opportunities. Moreover, better utilization actually offers many opportunities; to make existing homes more sustainable, to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood, and to offer seniors opportunities for advancement within the neighborhood”,
said Hugo de Jonge, Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
In the progress letter on better use of existing buildings, the minister outlines, among other things, the contours of a programmatic approach to Optopping and announces a proposed change in the law to make landlady rental easier for homeowners.
The landlady’s return
To make landlady rental in the Netherlands as common as it was for decades, Minister de Jonge is preparing a change in the law with the aim of making landlady rental allowed by more mortgage providers. As long as there is still a mortgage on the home, a homeowner needs permission from the mortgage provider to rent out a room. However, most mortgage providers are reluctant, because the value of a home when sold is often lower when a tenant lives in it. The minister is therefore investigating the possibility of terminating a landlady contract upon sale.
Broader awareness of the options and regulations surrounding landlady rental is also necessary. Not only among potential landladies, but also among municipalities and landlords, including housing associations. To achieve this, the minister will start an information campaign about the landlady scheme later this year. He calls on municipalities and housing associations to join this campaign and thus encourage home sharing through landlady rental.
Towards 100,000 new homes on flat roofs
The enthusiasm among municipalities, corporations and commercial parties to realize new homes through topping is visibly increasing. The number of good examples is increasing, and this is also necessary to gain experience with Optopping faster and on a larger scale and to standardize the construction process. The minister will therefore present an Optop approach together with Aedes, the province of South Holland and the Bouwcampus later this quarter. He also wants to discuss the number of homes they can build by topping up and what is required for this with municipalities and corporations with the greatest optop potential. The Minister sees opportunities in, among other things, the urban focus areas from the National Liveability and Safety Program.
Minister de Jonge:
Neighborhoods with many post-war 3- and 4-storey flats are ideal for topping up and also offer opportunities for the residents of the district. By combining the addition of a complex with making existing homes more sustainable, current and future residents benefit. In addition, homes can be added that are suitable for special target groups, such as the elderly or starters. Optopping also offers opportunities to simultaneously improve the quality of life and diversity of a neighborhood”.
Transformations and friend contracts
Every year, between 10 and 15 thousand homes are built by transforming buildings that previously had no residential function. The Minister is introducing additional measures to increase this number. Including a thematic approach for the different types of real estate to be transformed and an acceleration agenda, which is drawn up together with market and knowledge parties.
The minister also encourages municipalities to seek cooperation with developing parties that want to realize homes with shared facilities. For starters on the housing market, homes are increasingly being built or renovated in which facilities such as a living room, kitchen or outdoor space are shared. Municipalities can use the guidance on friend contracts by housing associations, which was recently published by Platform 31.
Read the letter to Parliament about progress in making better use of existing stock here.