Tenant organizations call for lower maximum rent increase

According to tenant organizations, the maximum rent increase for social housing should be lowered, as tenants are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. The National Tenants Platform (LHP) called for this in a full-page advertisement in the AD on Friday. The maximum rent increase should be reduced from 5.3 to 3.2 percent.

In the appeal, the organizations address politicians and housing associations as well as private landlords. The abolition of the energy subsidy, the adjustment of care and housing benefits and the constantly rising cost of living are putting a strain on the quality of life of social tenants and households with low middle incomes in the independent sector, they wrote.

"In the social rental sector, people are increasingly reliant on the food bank, children can't go to a sports club and vacations have become the exception rather than the rule. The same is true for lower-middle income earners."

People who only receive an AOW pension or a small supplementary pension will lose more than 70 euros per month, the tenants' organizations argued. They are therefore likely to run into financial difficulties.

According to the interest groups, housing associations and the government should ensure that housing remains affordable by allowing rents to rise by a maximum of 3.2 percent. According to calculations by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), this corresponds to inflation in January. Last year, the Cabinet decided that rents for housing association apartments could rise by a maximum of 5.3 percent from July 1 of this year.

Minister Hugo de Jonge (Housing) plans to regulate rents for social housing and the middle segment. This means that the rents of these homes may not exceed a certain amount. However, these plans mean that new-build homes will soon end up in the free sector, where no maximum rent applies, the tenants' lobby group Woonbond expects.

This is because newly built houses often have a higher WOZ value (property valuation) and a higher energy label than existing houses. This results in a higher score, and this number determines the maximum rent. De Jonge wants to raise this limit and thus regulate more houses. According to the Woonbond, the plans will ensure that soon only smaller houses will fall into the mid-rent range. A rent of 1,200 euros per month for 40 square meters will then be legal, according to the Woonbond.