Opposition parties criticize the DNB president for comments about Affordable Rent Act

Opposition parties are not happy about the critical comments made by Klaas Knot, the president of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), about the Affordable Rent Act. Knot told ANP in Washington that he thinks that the Affordable Rent Act should be scrapped. According to him, this law leads to scarcity and, therefore, to higher prices on the free rental market. Knot is in Washington for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Knotsgek,” MP for the Christenunie Pieter Grinwis said on X. The comment is translated to crazy in English but is also a pun on Knot’s name. He thinks Knot is out of line by speaking about such a sensitive political topic. “To my knowledge, our esteemed president of De Nederlandsche Bank does not hold a political position,” Grinwis wrote on X.

The MP pointed out that fewer rental homes have been offered for sale than previously thought. The homes that are now coming onto the sales market also offer opportunities to first-time movers, said Grinwis.

His words were echoed by Eline Vedder of the CDA. Habtamu de Hoop of the GroenLinks-PvdA also spoke out against Knot. "The law is not intended to keep investors in the saddle, but to make rental homes affordable. And it is working.”

On the contrary, Peter de Groot of the VVD agrees with Knot. “The law should never have come in this form,” he wrote. De Groot wanted larger regional differences so that landlords in, for example, Amsterdam could ask for more than outside the Randstad.

There is now a national limit of over 1100 euros for rental properties that fall within the system. Properties with more facilities, such as a larger garden, can fall outside the regulation based on a points system. Landlords can still ask whatever they want for these homes.

"I see the concerns and share the concerns," Minister of Housing Mona Keijzer said. "But I am responsible for implementing the law." Keijzer wants to see early next year how many rental homes have been sold thanks to the law, and what the consequences are for tenants in the increasingly tight rental market. She will then take the affordability of the rent and the construction of enough new homes as her starting point. Only then can she possibly go to the lower house of Dutch parliament the Tweede Kamer, with the proposal to withdraw the law.

The Tweede Kamer will debate the topic further on Thursday during the budgetary treatment of the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning. The first part of this was on Tuesday evening.