Refugee agency spent €7.7 million on land for asylum shelter that never opened

The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) paid nearly 7.7 million euros for a piece of land in Noordoostpolder for an asylum seekers’ center that never materialized. The agency is now trying to sell that land again, but realtors and the COA itself expect that recovering the millions invested will be quite the challenge, De Stentor reports.

In July 2022, State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum and Migration) announced that a new asylum registration center would open in Bant, a village that falls under Noordoostpolder. The center would have room for 300 asylum seekers and relieve pressure on the chronically overcrowded registration center in Ter Apel.

In that same month, the COA bought 10 hectares of land from farmer Chris Naalden, who closed his business due to the nitrogen issue. The deed, with the sales amount of 7,690,000 euros, only crossed the notary’s office on 9 January 2024.

But the planned second asylum registration center never materialized. Van der Burg and the COA abandoned the plans in mid-September 2022 due to massive resistance from locals. The COA is now looking to sell the land again.

But there are few sales options. The nitrogen rights for the property will expire on September 1, making a new livestock farm or other agricultural company on the plot challenging to achieve, brokers specialized in agricultural real estate told the newspaper. “7.5 hectares of arable land is actually too little for a profitable company,” one said. Naalden sold the rest of his farming land off long before the COA bought the remaining hectares.

The COA could sell the arable land separately from the property with the buildings. According to the Land Registry, a hectare of agricultural land in Flevloand costs an average of 177,000 euros. That would yield around 1.3 million euros, while the COA paid 3.6 million euros.

That leaves the house and a 23,000 square-meter yard with several barns. The COA paid 660,000 euros and 3.4 million euros for that, respectively. The possibilities for this area are also limited, brokers told De Stentor. The province won’t allow a second home on the property, and there is little chance that it would be suitable for large-scale housing for seasonable workers, for example, because the municipality is limiting that severely.

“There is always someone available for a house with a large yard and barns. For example, a self-employed person or people who would like to live outside more,” one broker said. “For larger yards like this, that can be more difficult because of the many buildings.” Based on comparable offers in the rest of the polder, the brokers doubt that the COA will get its 4 million euros back.

COA spokesperson Heleen Slob told De Stentor that the purchase price of 7.7 million euros was based on a valuation report. She added that the COA considers it “not inconceivable” that the farm will be sold for a lower amount.