Tenant and housing groups push for 4% annual cap on social housing rents

Groups representing tenants and housing corporations are calling for regulations to cap rent hikes. They propose that rents for social housing managed by corporations increase by no more than 4 percent per year. Both housing association Aedes and tenant organization Woonbond say this limit should be enshrined in law.

The groups want the proposed rent increase cap to be incorporated into the National Performance Agreements between housing corporations and the government.

Previously, Woonbond left talks on these agreements concerning new housing construction, arguing that rents were rising too steeply. With the latest deal with Aedes, Woonbond has now agreed to the terms.

A change to the Housing Act, prompted by the performance agreements, has yet to be implemented. The agreements further require that housing corporations calculate average rent hikes based on the average inflation rate over the last three years.

Should inflation stay significantly above 4 percent for multiple years, housing corporations plan to renegotiate the performance agreements with the government. Potential discussions could include extra funding or scaling back construction because of increased expenses.

The deal between housing corporations and tenants allows for certain exceptions to the rent cap. For individual properties, rents can be increased by an extra 1 percentage point, provided that this is balanced by lower rents in other units. Under earlier agreements, the additional increase was limited to 0.5 percentage points.