Bill for more rent control apartments too generous to accommodate investors, tenants say

Outgoing Housing Minister Hugo de Jonge has amended his Affordable Rent Act to address concerns from the Council of State and ensure that it remains profitable for investors to invest in new construction for mid-market rentals. The amendments are too generous to landlords, said the Woonbond, the association that fights for the rights of tenants.

In November, the Council of State warned that the law could lead to a decrease in the number of available rental properties. Investors could sell their rentals or invest less in new construction for rental properties if these yield too little.

To prevent this, De Jonge added a higher new construction surcharge to his bill, NU.nl reports. Landlords can charge 10 percent on top of the rent for new construction projects on which construction started before 2026. The surcharge also applies to the conversion of existing buildings.

De Jonge also made higher rent increases possible based on wage increases in collective labor agreements. Rents can increase by the wage increase plus 1 percent instead of plus 0.5 percent in the initial proposal.

But the core of the Affordable Housing Act remains intact, the outgoing Minister stressed. The bill will extend the points system that already applies to social housing to also include rental properties up to a rent of 1,123 euros and 1,235 euros for new construction. The points system sets the maximum rent for a property based on what it offers in terms of size and insulation, for example. The system should eventually save 300,000 tenants an average of 190 euros per month on rent.

De Jonge sent the adjusted bill to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, on Tuesday with an urgent request to handle it as soon as possible. He would like to implement the law on July 1.

The Woonbond is critical of De Jonge’s changes to the bill. The Minister “met the wishes of landlords exceptionally generously,” the interest group for tenants said. According to the Woonbond, the amendments are pushing the law away from the goal of protecting tenants against excessive rent. The Woonbond would rather that parliament limits the annual rent increase and moderate the influence that property value has on the points system.