Housing summit on reducing housing shortage is ‘cabinet’s top priority’

• Borrow Kraniotis

  economics editor

Reducing the housing shortage is a top priority of the government. 100,000 homes must be added annually, two-thirds of which should be ‘affordable’. To bring this goal closer, Minister Keijzer of Housing and Spatial Planning is holding a housing summit today.

She hopes to make agreements with various parties from the construction and housing world to build homes “faster and with fewer rules”. Prime Minister Schoof is also present to underline the importance.

Last year, about 88,000 homes were added. These are not only new-build homes (about 73,000), but also homes that were added, for example by the division of large houses or the conversion of office buildings (about 15,000).

But that is far from 100,000. And the expectation is that there will be fewer rather than more this year and next. Because in recent years the number of building permits issued has decreased. And in the first half of this year, almost 4 percent fewer new homes were built than last year.

So there is work to be done. The question is how concrete the agreements will be, or whether many declarations of intent will be signed. And that all parties “radiate” that they will do their best to build as much as possible. In any case, negotiations were still ongoing until yesterday.

One of the thorny topics is the money that the government makes available. Earlier this year, interest groups from construction companies, corporations and municipalities, among others, organized their own housing summit. Their story at the time was that 3 to 5 billion euros in annual support from the cabinet is needed to achieve 100,000 homes per year.

The government wants two-thirds of new homes to be affordable. The government calls owner-occupied homes affordable if they cost a maximum of 390,000 euros and rental homes if the rent is a maximum of 1,158 euros. These amounts are adjusted every year.

But because such homes generate less money, government support would be needed. However, on Budget Day it emerged that the government is setting aside less than this desired amount, namely 1 billion euros per year for five years for affordable housing and a one-off 2.5 billion euros for infrastructure around new homes.

Parties now say that this could make it difficult to build 100,000 homes per year. “We understand the political wish of two-thirds ‘affordable’,” says a spokesperson for Bouwend Nederland. “But in the sum of all requirements, the cost must also be correct. If the business case cannot be built, then no houses will be built. Construction companies are not charities.”

And according to the Financieele Dagblad The government is still arguing with municipalities about how much money they can contribute to housing construction. Keijzer would like municipalities to account for 50 percent of that shortfall in housing construction plans with a financing deficit. Municipalities say they don’t have the money for that.

Another point that parties often emphasize is that it should become easier to build. Construction companies and project developers hope that the government will simplify rules, for example. “Ensure that municipalities are not allowed to impose specific requirements when building homes in addition to what the government requires, for example in the field of sustainability,” says Bouwend Nederland. “The same applies to additional national requirements on top of European policy. The duration of objection procedures should also be shorter.”

Bouwend Nederland, WoningbouwersNL and Neprom (project developers) are in principle positive about Minister Keijzer’s aim to remove “redundant rules”, under the name STOER (Removal of Contradictory and Redundant Regulations).

But they were less happy about one of the first measures. Keijzer recently decided that there will be no obligation for nesting boxes for birds and bats in new-build homes.

Parties participating in the housing summit fear that municipalities will now make demands themselves. “If there are no standardized regulations regarding nesting facilities, we will be dealing with a maximum of 342 municipalities, each prescribing their own rules, numbers and sizes.”

At the end of the afternoon it should become clear what agreements were made at the housing summit. And only in a few years will it become clear what became of it, because building houses is a long-term process.