The hope of Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Housing is that extra living space will be created cheaper and faster as a result of the tender for the Central Government Real Estate Agency. After all, a large bulk order will lower the price per home and increase the production speed because the same standard home is always made. ‘With this order, we especially hope that homes will roll off the factory belt faster,’ explains a spokesperson for De Jonge.
Municipalities and housing associations can then sign up to have the ordered flexible housing on their territory. But finding precisely those locations is difficult, acknowledges the association of housing associations (Aedes) in a response. Not only because there is physically little building land in the Netherlands, but often also because local residents have started objection procedures for years against the arrival of a (temporary) new residential area. Construction sites for flexible housing are very scarce, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency also warned in July.
Warranty scheme
Minister De Jonge says in a statement, however, that ‘agreements have now been made with fellow authorities to give extra priority to making sites available and preparing them for construction at an accelerated rate’. Earlier this spring, a task force was also set up by the Ministry of the Interior to help municipalities get construction sites ready more quickly, the spokesperson for De Jonge emphasizes. ‘But whether that will work for these flex homes remains to be seen,’ he admits.
The association for housing associations, Aedes, says that the housing associations do intend to buy the two thousand flex homes from the government as soon as they are ready. But a spokesperson also says that there is ‘no insight yet’ on where they will be placed.
The government offers a guarantee scheme for ‘if something goes wrong’, says the spokesperson for Aedes. De Jonge is still developing this scheme, but his goal is that housing associations or municipalities will not run into financial problems if, for example, ‘no follow-up location can be found for the flexible housing after the first operating term’.
High priority
The construction of flexible housing is high on the government’s list of priorities. They are temporary houses that can be quickly built somewhere, such as container houses. They are often assigned to people who are urgently looking for a house, for example because they are divorced.
The cabinet also wants to accelerate the housing of refugees who are allowed to stay in the Netherlands in flexible housing. Tens of thousands of these so-called ‘status holders’ are now stuck in asylum centers because there is no housing available for them.
Up to and including 2024, the cabinet wants 37,500 flex homes to be built. Builders and corporations have previously expressed doubts as to whether this will succeed due to the lack of construction sites. The financial risks also form a barrier. De Jonge hopes to remove the latter problem with his guarantee scheme.