News item | 11-03-2022 | 15:30
The Minister for Housing and Spatial Planning, Hugo de Jonge, presented the National Housing and Construction Agenda and the Housing Programme. These plans provide more control and more pace, and thus improve the availability, affordability and quality of the housing supply in the Netherlands.
Minister de Jonge: “The housing shortage is great, too great. And houses are expensive, people with a low or middle income are now too often left out. If we leave living to the free play of forces, the law of the fittest applies and people get stuck. A place to live is a fundamental right, but in recent years it has become an inaccessible privilege for too many people. This broad housing and construction agenda must change that. Public housing is back.”
The National Housing and Construction Agenda contains six programs that will be further elaborated in the near future. They will be presented before the summer.
More direction
The government takes charge of public housing. Central government makes enforceable performance agreements with provinces, municipalities, corporations and market parties about increasing the pace, new construction and affordable housing. National targets are converted into provincial targets, regional housing deals and local performance agreements. These are not without obligation. On the basis of indicative numbers for the summer, the first talks will take place and after consultation with the parties involved, it will be clear for each region at the end of 2022 how many homes will be added each year over the next ten years. Including agreements on what type of housing, in which segment and in which locations.
The legal instruments are also being tightened up. Current legislation already provides various options for steering, but additional legislation is being prepared to further strengthen the management of public housing.
Residential building
Of the 900,000 homes to be built up to and including 2030, 600,000 homes must be affordable. Of these, 350,000 are mid-rental and affordable owner-occupied homes and 250,000 are social rental homes. It is expected that 100,000 homes will be built every year from 2024, of which (in due course) 15,000 are flex homes and 15,000 shops and offices transformed into homes.
Realizing a home must be more efficient and faster: the construction pace must be increased. To this end, we accelerate the lead time of the process: from plan to realisation. In addition, we use the possibilities to shorten the planning process and pay attention to capacity. Innovative techniques are promoted, such as conceptual and industrial building.
The focus is on 7 urbanization regions, within which some 600,000 of the 900,000 homes must be built up to and including 2030, including on large-scale housing locations. In addition to sufficient housing in the right place, explicit attention is also paid to affordability and quality. Sufficient housing must also be built for attention groups and the elderly.
For the focus on housing construction, 1.75 billion euros is available for the housing impulse and large-scale housing locations and 388 million euros for tackling bottlenecks and focusing on attention groups and housing for the elderly. In addition, 7.5 billion euros is available for infrastructure for opening up housing locations and the landlord levy will be abolished.
Affordable
People should be able to live in a house that suits their wishes and financial possibilities. In addition to the commitment to two-thirds of affordable new construction, every municipality must take its fair share in social housing. The aim is to have at least 30 percent of the housing stock consist of social housing. In addition, the cabinet is committed to reducing the number of people with excessive housing costs, for example by regulating the mid-market rent. Housing associations are given more space to build medium-sized rental homes and to invest in quality of life.