Free sector rentals deserve more attention on Dutch housing market: DNB

Over the past decades free sector rental homes have been too much of a "neglected child" in the Dutch housing market policy, Klaas Knot, president of Dutch central bank DNB, said in a speech on Monday. He called for more attention to be paid to this part of the housing market, ANP reports.

According to Knot, for years policy makers mainly focused on the social rental sector and the buying market. As a result, the Netherlands now faces a severe shortage in free sector rental properties. "Where just after the Second World War the housing stock still consisted of 60 percent free rent, less than 10 percent is left in 2019", he said.

Knot acknowledged that there has been a slight increase in the supply over the past years, and that the government placed mid-segment rentals high on its agenda. "But that is not enough", he said. He would like to see renting again become an attractive alternative for buying a house.

This will mean that benefits for homeownership, such as mortgage interest deductibles, will become a thing of the past. That's a good thing, Knot argues, partly because the Netherlands has a relatively high mortgage debt.