News item | 5/17/2023 | 16:24
Many people experience the consequences of the enormous shortage of affordable housing every day. Now that new construction projects are under pressure due to changing economic conditions, we must pull out all the stops to realize the 900,000 new homes up to and including 2030. One of the ways in which we do this is by using existing buildings creatively. This is currently still happening on a small scale, while the potential is great. That is why, among other things, there will be a programmatic approach for topping up. That is what Minister for Housing Hugo de Jonge writes to the House of Representatives.
Making better use of existing buildings can be done in various ways. By realizing more homes on top of existing living space, by making sharing a home easier and by promoting the flow between homes.
By building up to 100,000 homes
The Minister announces a programmatic approach ‘Topping up’, with the aim of stimulating topping up on a larger scale. Up to 100,000 homes can be realized by adding an extra floor to the roof of an existing building (topping up), the majority of which will be on the roofs of housing corporation homes. This is evident from recent research by Stec Group. In the coming period, the Ministry will work out this approach together with corporations, market parties and local authorities. Think of the development of modular and standardized building products.
“Especially now that new construction is having a more difficult time, we must make the best possible use of the existing housing stock to create as much living space as possible,” said Minister De Jonge.
Lots of potential for housing division
Dividing homes, transforming existing buildings into homes and placing micro homes (a small, independent home in the backyard) are also ways of realizing more homes on the same plot. By splitting homes, i.e. creating several independent homes from one existing home, approximately 2200 homes will have been realized in 2021. But the potential is much greater, up to tens of thousands of homes up to 2030. By drawing up a ‘division guide’, we are encouraging those municipalities where splitting is possible and desirable to actively start working on this.
Housing sharing more accessible
There are more than 900,000 single people in the Netherlands who live in a home with three or more rooms. Sharing a home can be attractive to many people. The Minister wants to remove obstacles for elderly people who want to live together. To this end, we are starting an experiment ‘Sharing a home’ in which the financial and non-financial obstacles are first made transparent and then removed. Among other things, we look at the possibilities offered by the scope for experimentation of the Housing Act.
Follow-up
The Minister will inform the House at the end of this year about the progress made in making better use of the existing buildings.
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