Over €23 billion to be spent on new social housing, sustainability improvements

A group of 27 housing corporations in the major Dutch cities are pushing 23.4 billion euros into the construction and renovation of social rental housing, including making them more sustainable, over the next 5 years. The amount is over 3 billion euros higher than in the previous 5 year period, De Vernieuwde Stad, a partnership of the corporations, announced.

With this money, the corporations can build 52 thousand new homes and renovate or increase the sustainability of 238 thousand homes, compared to 47 thousand new homes and 251 thousand renovated houses in the previous period.

"This unprecedented construction impetus is necessary because of the large shortage of housing and the need for sustainability," De Vernieuwde Stad said. "The question is whether it is enough to tackle all the problems."

According to the corporations, the main obstacles in their way to further expand construction and renovation are the increase in construction costs and the high tax burden. If the landlord levy, for example, was scrapped, the housing corporations could build an extra 20 thousand homes, they said.