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12-12-2022
Points plan against sky-high rents: a maximum of 1000 euros per month
More people with middle incomes should be able to live in the city. That is why Minister Hugo de Jonge (Housing) is coming with a new regulatory plan: the government no longer allows rents up to 1000 euros per month to be subject to the game of supply and demand. But not everyone is convinced of the plan.
The nurse, the police officer, the primary school teacher: they are all badly needed, especially in the big cities. But while there is plenty of work, there are not enough affordable homes for these people. They often fall into the 'middle income' group - with annual salaries between 40,000 and 56,000 euros - and are not entitled to social rent.
To do something about this, De Jonge wants to regulate more. He wants to use the WWS, the housing valuation system, for this. This system has so far been used to calculate the social rent, and runs up to 142 points. De Jonge's plan stretches the points system: houses between 142 and 187 points will cost a maximum of 1000 euros per month.
Grilling the market
The Housing Association likes the idea. "Today we see that some of the tenants spend up to half of their disposable income on rent," says spokesman Mathijs ten Broeke. "The rents are currently determined by the whims of the market." The Woonbond believes that this type of rent should be regulated. "Then tenants are better protected and there are no longer excessive rents."
The landlords are not enthusiastic about De Jonge's plan. "Various new rules have already made it more difficult for investors," says Cynthia Noordhoek, landlord broker at Marktpand and a landlord herself. According to her, this new arrangement cannot do that. "This means that homes are being removed from the rental market."
For single-person households earning up to around 40,000 euros per year and two-person households under 45,000 euros, there is the social rent: no one pays more than 763 euros per month. If you earn more, or if the waiting lists are too long, you will have to rely on the free sector. That's about half a million homes. And there rents have risen by about 25 percent since 2013, while incomes have only increased by 20 percent.
Regulation can also cause problems for new construction. Before 2030, 350,000 new homes must be built in the middle segment. Desirée Uitgever of the Association of Dutch Project Development Companies (NEPROM), which stands up for real estate developers, says that according to their estimates, a third of what would be built could be delayed by the new plans.
Out of town
Nils Kok, Professor of Real Estate Finance at Maastricht University, finds De Jonge's plan "sympathetic". But in the future we may have to learn to deal differently with the space we have in the Netherlands, he thinks. "We all want to live in the city, but is that really necessary? We don't use the space efficiently." Not only should more people live outside the city, Kok thinks, more should also be built in regions that are still sparsely populated, such as Zeeland and the eastern and northern Netherlands.
Finally, in the long term, we could look at making renting more affordable, says Kok. "We are now very much encouraging home ownership. We are putting off the abolition of the mortgage interest deduction, but of course it remains a point of concern."
De Jonge's plan will apply to new leases. Sitting tenants have nothing to do with it. A new letter to the House of Representatives is expected next week in which the plans are further elaborated.
