News item | 07-10-2022 | 16:15
The law to abolish the landlord levy was sent to the House of Representatives today by Minister De Jonge for Housing and Spatial Planning. By abolishing the landlord levy as of 1 January 2023, the costs for housing associations will be structurally reduced by approximately €1.7 billion per year. This will provide housing associations with additional investment scope, enabling them to achieve the total investment target of €119 billion in the period 2022-2030.
For this period, National Performance Agreements have been made about doubling the production of social rental housing (€62 billion), making more than 675,000 homes more sustainable (€46 billion) and rent moderation and a mandatory rent reduction for the lowest incomes (€11 billion). Investments are also made in home improvement and tackling damp and mold problems.
Minister De Jonge: ‘We are facing major challenges that we can only tackle together. By abolishing the landlord levy, housing associations will have more investment space to be able to do what they were founded for: build more new affordable homes, accelerate the sustainability of the housing stock and ensure lower housing costs.’
Doubling of construction production of social rental housing
The construction pace of the housing associations must increase considerably in the coming years from approximately 15,000 in recent years to almost 30,000 towards 2030. The aim is for associations to build 250,000 social rental homes in the period 2022 to 2030. 50,000 mid-rental homes will be built with a price between €850 and €1,000. Before the end of the year, the provinces and municipalities will draw up regional housing deals together with housing associations and tenants. In this way, it becomes clear per municipality how many social housing corporations will build up to and including 2030, and how many mid-rental housing corporations will realize per municipality. The municipalities will make clear at the end of 2022 where these homes will be located. We aim for at least 30% social rent per municipality.
Lower housing costs for social rent
Over the next three years, housing associations will moderate the rents for all tenants, about 2 million households. The link with inflation is then released: the maximum rent increase for tenants is equal to the wage development. As a result, rents will rise less rapidly than wages. To improve the rent for tenants with a low income, tenants with an income at or below the 120% social minimum will receive a legally required one-off rent reduction to €550 (price level 2020) that will take effect in 2023. Approximately 510,000 households are eligible for this. They receive an average rent reduction of an average of €57 per month.
Far-reaching sustainability of more than 675,000 homes
The housing costs for tenants in a housing association house are also reduced by accelerating sustainability. Housing associations will accelerate the process of making all their homes with an E, F or G label more sustainable up to and including 2028. This is in line with the goal of extensively insulating 675,000 homes by 2030 and making 450,000 existing housing association homes natural gas-free. In order to allow tenants to benefit from this sustainability improvement, it has been agreed that they will not receive a rent increase after insulation measures that lead to a better energy label.
€1.5 billion home improvement and tackling damp and mold problems
Up to and including 2030, corporations will also invest an additional €200 million annually in home improvement, with a focus on an accelerated approach to moisture and mould, lead pipes, asbestos and fire safety. From 2026, there may no longer be any homes with a poor state of repair (with the exception of homes that are replaced by new construction).