Parliamentary majority wants to scrap temporary rent contracts
A majority in the Tweede Kamer will support a PvdA and ChristenUnie proposal to outlaw temporary leases. The introduction of temporary rental contracts of up to two years was meant to make more rental properties available. That did not happen. Instead, they lead to unnecessary stress and high moving costs for tenants, according to MPs Pieter Grinwis (CU) and Henk Nijboer (PvdA).
Municipalities complain that short-term tenants affect the cohesiveness of neighborhoods, deteriorating the quality of life, the MPs said, NOS reports. And with the housing shortage, short-term leases give landlords a position of power to up the rent or slack on maintenance.
“Students are often trapped living on moldy floors but don’t dare to ask their landlords anything,” D66 MP Faissal Boulakjar agreed with the proposal during a parliamentary debate on Thursday evening.
“There is great uncertainty among tenants, which sometimes even leads to them postponing having a child,” said CDA parliamentarian Jaco Geurts, expressing the feeling of several parties. “The tension of looking for a home again leads to sleepless nights.”
The PvdA and CU’s initiative law to make permanent contracts the norm again can count on support from D66, SP, GroenLinks, PvdD, and likely also the CDA and PVV.
The bill contains several exceptions. Temporary rental contracts will continue to exist for large families, young people, students, and Ph.D. candidates, though the term will be extended to five years instead of two.
The CDA wants to expand the expectations to include temporary leases for short-stay homes and emergency shelters. The PVV wants to add an exception for older people who bought an extra home for their retirement and want to rent it out temporarily. “Can they still sell their house, or are they stuck with that tenant indefinitely?” PVV parliamentarian Alexander Kops asked.
The VVD is against adjusting the current practice. VVD parliamentarian Peter de Groot worries that changing the rules will lead to fewer rental properties in an already tight market. “The offer will take a hit, and we won’t help anyone with that.”
Housing Minister Hugo de Jonge is also not enthusiastic about the idea. He is already tackling rent increases by regulating part of the free market, he said. He does, however, think it a good idea to allow municipalities to prohibit temporary leases in certain neighborhoods.
Concerns about the free market rental offer decreasing were also raised with De Jonge’s plans for regulating more rentals and an increase in the tax on homes up for rent. But the Woonbond, the interest group for tenants, pointed out that this would just be a reversal of what happened in recent years when people bought owner-occupied homes to rent out. The proportion of private sector rentals in the Dutch housing market doubled from 4 percent in 2012 to about 8 percent in 2021.
De Jonge also addressed concerns that regulation would lead to landlords selling their rental properties. “If a house is sold to a middle-income person who would otherwise rent, the demand for middle-income rent decreases at the same time. After all, the middle-income person in question has found an affordable home, only not a rental, but an owner-occupied home,” Minister De Jonge said when explaining his bill to regulate more rental properties.