Immigration a threat to Cabinet’s housing shortage solution, says housing minister

One of the biggest issues threatening the Cabinet’s plans to resolve the housing crisis by 2030 is immigration, said Housing and Spatial Planning Minister Hugo de Jonge in an interview with Trouw. The newspaper published the interview on Wednesday.

The coalition agreement that led to the formation of the fourth Cabinet under Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the start of 2022 calls for the Netherlands to build about 100,000 new homes per year through 2030. However, the population grew by 191,000 people just in the first nine months of the year, with the final total expected to be around 227,000. "If the immigration results remain as it stands, 900,000 homes in 2030 will not be enough,” De Jonge said. The housing shortage will only be exacerbated every year the population increase due to immigration is so high even after accounting for emigration, he continued. “The immigration balance must go down.”

A large portion of the population increase this year was due to nearly 318,000 people who settled in the Netherlands between January and the end of September, including 97,000 who fled the war in Ukraine. About 129,000 people left the Netherlands this year, meaning over 98 percent of the population increase this year was driven by immigration.

"We will have to plan our demographics, because, in fact, we are heading for 19 million people in 2034 if nothing changes. We need to form an idea about how many people we can live here with and how much growth can really be accommodated in the Netherlands," De Jonge said. The Cabinet needs to get a better handle on the situation, whether immigration is linked to asylum, love, family reunification, or international students, the minister said. Without a comprehensive approach, politicians end up putting too much of the burden on society as a whole.

“And then we undermine support for immigration in a country where we will also need immigration. But the current growth in the number of people in our country is potentially disruptive."

The problem is not new, and as a whole, successive governments have thus far “failed people” when it comes to handling the housing shortage over the years, the minister said. “We have let it get to the point where the shortage of suitable housing affects people’s livelihoods.”

The minister noted that over 20 years ago he was able to purchase his first home in Carnisse for 64,000 guilders, but his children will not be in as positive a position when they reach their mid-twenties in 2030. “I was blissfully happy. You can no longer buy a garage for that money.”