Over a third of Dutch municipalities taking action against property speculators

Over a third of Dutch municipalities, at least 127, are taking action against property speculators to give first-time buyers a better position in the housing market, among other things. A self-occupancy obligation and purchase protection are popular anti-speculation measures, RTL Z reports based on an analysis of recently concluded municipal coalition agreements.

The municipality of Ede plans to implement a self-occupancy regulation, housing alderman Leon Meijer said to the broadcaster. The obligation will apply to newly-built homes in the starter segment. “So, are you buying a house for your nephew or niece? Bad luck for you. That is not the intention. The nephew or niece must buy it themselves. So that we prevent people from seeing homes as an investment instrument like in recent years,” Meijer said.

Housing market professor Peter Boelhouwer at TU Delft thinks the self-occupancy obligation is a good idea. But he is less enthusiastic about purchase protection. “It is a political decision,” he said to RTL. “But it makes it more difficult for people looking for a mid-segment rental home. I wonder whether that is convenient.”

It could also have negative consequences for new construction projects, Boelhouwer added. He pointed out that Housing Minister Hugo de Jonge also wants to limit rents in the free sector. The accumulation of measures may frighten off large investors, he said. “And those large investors play an important role in the housing market,” Boelhouwer explained. Their investments get projects off the ground.

Vastgoed Belang, the interest organization for real estate investors, has similar concerns. The self-occupancy obligation and purchase protection are “ineffective” measures, Arnoud Vlak of Vastgoed Belang said to RTL. “People looking for a rental home will find themselves in even more trouble due to these measures,” he said. He predicts that banning investors will result in new construction projects declining, resulting in fewer rental homes in the middle segment.