Up to a fifth of Amsterdam homes illegally sublet: report

Amsterdam housing corporations are struggling with housing fraud on a large scale. They estimate that between 10 and 20 percent of their 186 thousand homes are being illegally sublet, Financieele Dagblad reports after speaking with Ymere, Rochdale and Stadgenoot - the three large housing corporations in Amsterdam.

The corporations could not give FD exact figures, but confirmed that tenants are illegally renting many thousand of homes to someone else. Stadgenoot estimates that it involves 3 thousand to 6 thousand of its homes. Ymere believes that subletting affects 8 to 10 percent of its 40 thousand homes.

The subletting contributes to the overheating of the housing market and the housing corporations increasingly feel the urgency to tackle the problem. Only 3 percent of the housing corporations' homes are released annually due to relocation.

The municipality of Amsterdam also said that it will focus more on tackling housing fraud, according to the newspaper.