Housing corporations warn government’s rent freeze will cost them €3 billion

Dutch housing corporations and renters’ organizations say the national government’s proposed compensation for a two-year freeze on social housing rent increases falls far short of what is needed. Corporations estimate a loss of over 3 billion euros in rental income, while the government is offering 1.1 billion euros in total compensation spread over three years, according to NOS.

Housing Minister Mona Keijzer announced the freeze earlier this week, stating that rents for social housing units will not increase on July 1, 2025, or July 1, 2026. She followed the announcement by promising compensation for housing corporations. On Friday, the government revealed the specific amounts: 270 million euros in 2026 and 405 million euros in both 2027 and 2028.

Aedes, the national association of housing corporations, sharply criticized the figures. “It’s a drop in the ocean,” the organization told NOS. Aedes chair Liesbeth Spies warned that the freeze will hurt both existing tenants and prospective ones.

“The rent freezes are leaving tenants out in the cold,” said Spies. She added that without the expected rent increases, housing corporations will have to cancel tens of thousands of planned new social housing units.

The funding shortfall will also limit corporations’ ability to upgrade existing properties. “We will be able to insulate fewer homes or install electric heat pumps in place of gas-fired boilers,” Spies said. “It’s an insult to tenants who won’t see their energy bills go down, and to everyone waiting for an affordable social housing unit.”

Until this week, the government had allowed housing corporations to raise rents by an average of 4.5 percent in 2025. Based on that expectation, corporations had reached an agreement with Minister Keijzer to ramp up construction of social housing—from fewer than 18,000 new units in 2023 to 30,000 per year. That plan is now considered unachievable.

The Woonbond, the national renters' advocacy group, initially welcomed the rent freeze. However, after the compensation figures were made public, the group reversed its position.

“It’s really a pittance,” Woonbond director Zeno Winkels told NOS. “All the good intentions are now in jeopardy. This cabinet is shrinking the social housing sector.” Winkels pointed to the likely drop in new construction as a direct consequence of undercompensation.

While social rents will be frozen, tenant incomes are expected to rise due to annual increases in wages and benefits. As a result, the government expects to save around 500 million euros per year in reduced housing benefit payments.

For the first two years, these savings will be redirected into what the coalition is calling a “boodschappenbonus”—translated as “grocery bonus.” The measure is a one-time increase in housing benefit payments in 2026, totaling 1 billion euros. Only those who already receive housing benefits will be eligible for this bonus.

Starting in 2027, however, the government plans to permanently reduce housing benefits, even though it will continue saving approximately 500 million euros per year on the program.