Newly built homes no longer guaranteed parking space in Dutch cities

Buyers of newly built homes in the Netherlands can no longer assume that they will have space to park their cars. Most municipalities currently still guarantee 1 to 1.8 parking spaces per new home, but an increasing number of cities are lowering their parking standards, according to an inventory by newspaper AD.

Utrecht, for example, decided last week that its new Merwedekanaalzone, which will house 10 thousand people, will be a car-free zone. Car owners who buy there will have to park their car further down in underground parking garages. Only one parking is available for every three homes.

The Hague, Dordrecht, Diemen, Groningen, Haarlem and Leiden all recently lowered their parking standards for new-build homes. Amsterdam and Zwolle did so some time ago. Rotterdam opted for fewer parking spaces in certain locations, such as in Blaak. And multiple other cities, including Purmerend, are currently discussing the matter, according to the newspaper.

Area expert and professor Friso de Zeeuw recognizes the trend, he said to AD. "This is a current discussion, with Utrecht and Amsterdam leading the way. In more and more large cities, parking standards are going down to 0.3 or sometimes 0.2 per home."

According to De Zeeuw, fewer parking spaces in city centers are easily defensible. "In particular if houses are located near public transport hubs. Residents then consciously opt for that." The emergence of new forms of mobility, like car- and bike sharing, is eliminating the need for car ownership. And the current problems with nitrogen and PFAS increase the urgency.

Homeowners association VEH, which represents almost 800 thousand homeowners, called fewer parking spaces when building within cities inevitable. "There is simply no place to park the cars of new residents," a spokesperson said to the newspaper.