Splitting houses is seen as one of the solutions to the housing shortage. Yet many municipalities do not yet have a policy for this. The exception to this is the municipality of Bergeijk. They have been actively encouraging splitting for 2.5 years. However, things are not going well yet.
There is an older farm just outside Riethoven in the municipality of Bergeijk. The farm is split into two houses. There is another house behind the farm. It looks like a wooden prefab house. CDA councilor Mathijs Kuijken would like to show this place. “This is a really good example.”
He points to the outbuilding. “A young couple lives here who are also informal caregivers for grandmother, who still lives in the farm. This outbuilding may be lived in for a maximum of ten years.” Because the farm itself has also been split, one farm actually provides three houses.
‘Giant question’
The municipality has had an active policy to divide houses for 2.5 years now. “We saw a huge demand for houses,” says the councilor. “We are a rural municipality with many large houses with a lot of land around them. Why wouldn’t we use that?”
Only 19,000 people live in Bergeijk and there are more than 8,000 houses. Since the municipality helped people to divide their house, this has now been done about 70 times. “We actually expected that more people would want it,” says the councilor. “It often happens in a family context or people are already acquainted with each other. But that is not a requirement.”
Slum landlords
The flexible policy could also be a magnet for slum landlords, who mainly want to earn a lot of money. Kuijken is not so afraid of that. “We have been doing this for 2.5 years now and we have not seen any slum landlords yet. We prevent that with clear rules.”
Some rules of the municipality:
- Splitting is only allowed if you focus on starters, seniors, small families or singles.
- The rent may not be higher than the social rent limit.
- If it is an owner-occupied home, the sales price may not exceed 200,000 euros.
According to Alderman Kuijken, splitting alone cannot solve the housing shortage. “There is also a lot of construction to be done. But at the same time it is good to make use of what is already there. Every little bit helps.”
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Here you can read what rules apply in your municipality for dividing houses.