Housing construction in Drenthe is largely at a standstill. Last week, a joint report from all provinces made it clear that nitrogen is the biggest culprit, but there are still a number of major spoilsports in Drenthe: lack of money, spray zoning for crop protection products in agriculture, long objection procedures and an immense task for renovating old neighborhoods.
And the list of problems is not yet complete. This is evident from the provincial report on the Preconditions for Housing Construction.
We now know the consequences of all the problems: insufficient starter homes, young people cannot continue to live in their own village, families cannot move on to a larger home and the elderly remain in their owner-occupied home because too few senior homes are being built.
Drenthe is still on schedule with regard to the housing construction task it has received from the government, 4,000 are under construction or completed. But we will not achieve the rest of the agreed 16,200 that must be built before 2030, warns deputy Yvonne Turenhout.
She wants extra support from the government to complete the task on time. Structural support, because the problems are great. And we are not yet talking about the 45,000 homes that Drenthe wants to build in the longer term.
Nitrogen is the biggest culprit. In many Drenthe municipalities, housing construction is at a standstill due to nitrogen regulations, or housing construction is in danger of coming to a standstill. You can read how this works and how it works per municipality via the first link below this story. According to Turenhout, “there is not yet any prospect of a comprehensive package of measures from the central government, which is essential to unlock housing construction.”
Another major problem: many new buildings have an ‘unprofitable top’ as they say. In other words: There is a significant gap between the costs that municipalities have to incur to make areas suitable for housing and the revenues from those locations. This ranges from an average of 32,000 euros to peaks of 57,000 euros per home. “Municipalities cannot sustain these costs,” Turenhout warns.
This will soon also apply to housing associations. The report shows that the corporations still have sufficient money for their tasks in the short term, but in the long term there is less money and large-scale sustainability or restructuring of old neighborhoods from the 60s and 70s is on the way.
That doesn’t go together, according to Turenhout. Either new construction of social housing or their renovation will then be in trouble. And it also does something to the affordability of rental housing, they fear at the provincial government.
The provincial housing monitor shows that there are restructuring plans for at least 2008 homes, and there are probably more. Almost fifty percent of the housing stock consists of homes built after the war until the 1980s. In 2021, the cost of restructuring was already estimated at 1.2 billion euros.
And the government wants to mandate that 30 percent of new construction will be social rental. According to Turenhout, they have to put in the money to be able to do that.
It is not yet legally required, but there has already been a judicial ruling from the Council of State: a sprout-free zone of 50 meters for agricultural crop protection products. In Drenthe, think mainly of lily cultivation, but also of potatoes or onions. 2654 homes yet to be built fall within those 50 meters. And whether 50 meters is sufficient is still subject to major national studies.
Turenhout does not see a solution anytime soon: “If you want to buy land from a farmer to create such a spray-free zone, this is only possible in Drenthe on a voluntary basis. And then the costs for building on the adjacent plots will increase again.”
As if there are not enough problems in the housing market, the list is not yet complete. Objectors to new construction plans sometimes manage to delay construction for years all the way to the Council of State. After that, construction either does not take place or construction costs have risen so much that construction can no longer take place. One in three new-build homes is affected by an objection procedure.
There is a significant shortage of civil servants to supervise all processes. Municipalities are faced with a shortage of people and expertise. The province has a construction team to assist municipalities with complex cases, but that is insufficient to solve all problems.
And then there is also the danger of grid congestion. Not being able to get a power connection for the new housing estate or not being able to supply it back to the electricity grid if you generate electricity yourself.
The joint provinces are asking for at least 4 to 5 billion euros from the government to start solving all problems. But that amount will probably have to be much higher.