Housing min.: Corporations have enough money for 250,000 new homes

Despite the burden of landlords tax, housing corporations have sufficient opportunities to build new housing and renovate existing homes, Minister Stef Blok of Housing said in parliament on Tuesday. He cited figures from Bureau Ortec Finance which show that it is possible to build 250 thousand new homes, NU.nl reports. These figures are based on the offices calculations based on figures from the industry itself. The 37 billion euros needed for the 250 thousand new homes should be easy to borrow, according to Blok. The figures also show that 1.1 billion euros in rent reductions are possible and that there is still 28 billion euros available for renovating existing homes and making them more sustainable. Two weeks ago Aedes, the Housing Association and the association of Dutch municipalities VNG, sounded the alarm about the effect the landlords tax is having. The tax is resulting in housing corporations having very little money left for building new homes and renovating existing ones, according to Aedes. Blok disagrees, but he is taking a number of measures to boost the construction of low-cost rental housing and to protect small landlords. Landlors who rent out cheap housing will get a discount on the tax. And this discount will be largest in areas where there is great need for such homes. The number of rental homes owned before you have to pay the landlord tax will also be increased from 10 to 25.