News item | 17-10-2023 | 10:32
Hundreds of thousands of homes must be built in the coming years. Minister Hugo de Jonge of Housing and Spatial Planning is therefore looking for locations for new areas for large-scale housing projects.
He also wants to ensure, with additional control, that the potential for new homes is used even more in the 17 existing NOVEX areas for large-scale housing construction. He wrote this today in a letter in which he updated the House of Representatives on the progress of the approach to large-scale NOVEX housing construction locations.
In the Netherlands, 981,000 new homes are needed up to and including 2030. But even after that – in the period up to and including 2050 – population growth is expected. Building alone on small and medium-sized locations does not provide enough homes to meet this growing demand. That is why the Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning, in addition to measures such as the Start Construction Impulse and the Housing Construction Impulse, is also committed to expanding the 17 large-scale NOVEX housing construction locations*. Both by building more within the existing areas and by designating new areas.
Minister de Jonge: “Even if we succeed in gaining more control over our growth, a lot more construction will still have to be done to cope with population growth. This requires more locations for large-scale housing construction. Major expansion is still possible at the current 17 large-scale housing construction locations after 2030, and we will also have to designate new locations for large-scale housing construction in the coming year. We also explicitly look to the east, north and south. We will have to make use of the whole of the Netherlands and do justice to the whole of the Netherlands.”
Investigate possibilities for large-scale housing construction in new locations
Discussions have been going on for some time about a number of new potential locations for large-scale housing construction (Gnephoek, Rijnenburg, Cruquis and Oosterwolde). In addition, the minister is now also looking for new locations. This not only looks at the possibilities for absolute housing construction numbers, but also at the impact that housing construction can have on the regional housing shortage. The intention is to combine economic development with large-scale housing construction and area development and associated facilities. Regions where opportunities are seen for this are Eindhoven, the Stedendriehoek, Twente, South Limburg and the Groningen-Assen-Emmen region. These search areas are also mentioned in the contour note of the Spatial Planning Policy Document. The new large-scale housing construction locations will be designated when the Spatial Planning Policy is adopted in 2024.
Expand potential of existing areas
The minister is also investigating the possibility of further expanding the current 17 NOVEX areas. In total, there is the potential to build more than 600,000 homes in these areas until 2040. The question is what is needed to increase production in these areas, especially after 2030.
Active government involvement further broadened
Entire new neighborhoods and districts are being created at the 17 NOVEX locations under the direction of the government, where people live, work, learn and meet each other. This concerns at least 3,000 homes per location. 25 municipalities will receive a contribution from the area budget totaling 475 million euros for these areas. In addition, 6 billion euros is available for scale jumps, mobility package measures and network tasks.
Because urban development, accessibility and facilities are also required, these are complex projects. It is therefore important that long-term security and continuity of construction production can be offered. This means that the active involvement of the government in the development and realization of these locations will be further expanded in the coming years.
The minister is currently experimenting with additional support and involvement from the government in financial, administrative and/or operational areas, depending on the specific challenges facing an area. He also explores the possibilities for a government approach for interdepartmental large-scale area development to tackle challenges in the areas of work, housing, learning, energy and water as integrally as possible.