Amsterdam to allow more home sharing in fight against housing shortage
Amsterdam will allow more home sharing in an attempt to make it easier for people to find somewhere to live in the very tight housing market. The city council agreed on Thursday to allow almost 6,000 additional permits for more than two people not from the same household to live together, Parool reports.
Since 2020, landlords in Amsterdam have needed a permit to rent out a home as individual rooms to more than two people not from the same household. At the time, the city made over 13,000 permits available with a maximum for each district. From January 1, there will be 5,851 additional permits spread across the city.
Coalition party D66, in particular, pushed to make home sharing easier. D66 city councilor Suleyman Aslami is therefore pleased with the additional permits. Sharing homes can offer young people a chance on the housing market, he said, according to the newspaper.
The other two coalition parties, PvdA and GroenLinks, are a bit more cautious. A motion by GroenLinks to extensively evaluate the additional permits in two years was passed by a majority of the city council.
The city implemented the permit obligation for converting a home into individual rooms due to concerns about tenant rights being violated and more nuisance reports from around shared homes. The conditions for room rental contracts will, therefore, remain unchanged.
