Netherlands set to spend tens of millions to stimulate housing construction

Housing Minister Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan is pushing tens of millions into facilitating housing construction and putting the target of 100,000 new homes per year more within reach. The D66 Minister allocated €280 million for more civil servants to approve construction permits and to relax the rules for prefabricated homes, among other things, she announced in a letter to parliament.

According to Boekholt, the planning and construction of a home currently takes an average of ten years. She believes years can be shaved off that by prefabricating more homes in factories and assembling them on site. “This makes it possible to build faster, on a larger scale, and with less dependence on scarce labor,” she wrote.

Currently, slightly over 20 percent of newly constructed homes come from a factory. In four years, Boekholt wants that to be 50 percent. The Cabinet is allocating €90 million per year to this and other housing construction innovations and digitalization.

She is also allocating nearly €160 million per year for municipalities to appoint a “flexible pool” of civil servants and experts who can assist with the planning and realization of homes. “To accelerate the permitting process and to counter problems that halt or delay construction,” she said. Slow permit procedures are one of the major bottlenecks in the Dutch construction sector.

Boekholt also wants to abolish certain permits to make it easier to create new homes by splitting larger homes or “topping up” existing buildings with additional floors, and to make it easier to share housing and rent rooms to lodgers. She will elaborate on how she plans to regulate this before the summer.

In another letter to parliament, the Housing Minister also confirmed her plans to relax the rules for mid-market rentals. She wants to allow landlords to charge higher rent for expensive rental homes, newly-built homes, and homes without a garden or balcony by relaxing the Tenants Act.

She will adjust the points system that indicates how much landlords can charge in regulated sectors. The changes will give the property value (WOZ) of a home more weight in determining the rent and scrap the penalty points for the lack of outdoor space.

Boekholt wants to implement these adjustments next year, or sooner if possible.