After years of work, the construction of the nine starter homes in Vledder is about to start. Nine young people from the village finally have their own owner-occupied home. The process did not go smoothly, but after help from the entire village, the initiators succeeded.
A number of excavators drive over the vacant piece of land behind residential care center De Borgstee. The sewage system is almost finished and in a month’s time the construction work of the houses themselves will start.
“It’s going to be very exciting now,” says Selin Dural. Together with a number of other initiators, she has been involved in the project from the start. “We’ve always had faith in it, but it makes me proud to see it now.”
Put some love in it
The project is a citizens’ initiative in collaboration with village interests Vledder. For young people, owner-occupied homes are virtually unaffordable or unavailable. A group of starters in Vledder therefore conceived the plan to take matters into their own hands. The municipality gave them a piece of land and step by step the project took shape. That did not go smoothly, but the group received help from all over the village. For example, architect Olaf Janson, who was born in Vledder himself, decided to do his bit.
“We intended in advance to make it a fun project and not one that would make a lot of money,” he says. “Projects like this don’t get off the ground if you don’t put some love into it.”
Keep price stable
One of the biggest challenges the group faced was maintaining the intended purchase price. That is around two tons, but due to the considerably increased construction prices it would not have been surprising if that amount had been considerably higher. But by paying close attention to the budget, and saving where possible, things did not get out of hand. “Actually, it’s a shame that it is so difficult to keep the price stable,” says Janson. “We had to think carefully about how we could keep the house as small as possible without losing quality. We really applied the cheese slicing method.”