Deal to solve housing shortage includes entire districts of moveable, prefab homes
One of the plans agreed to at the Housing Summit in Nieuwegein is to build seven “flexible districts” - residential areas consisting entirely of moveable, prefabricated homes, RTL Nieuws reports. The idea was presented as part of the ongoing talks between housing, construction and infrastructure sector representatives and the Cabinet. All sides agree that construction needs to ramp up rapidly in the coming years, and in more municipalities, to hit the government's target of 100,000 new homes annually, the Cabinet said on Wednesday.
The previous Cabinet had the same target, which it missed every year. The closest that the last Cabinet came was in 2023, when nearly 90,000 homes were built. On average, the figure has been closer to 75,000 homes, far too few to meet constant and growing demand. Housing Minister Mona Keijzer gathered representatives of the construction industry, project developers, housing corporations, and governments at the Housing Summit to make agreements on accelerating housing construction.
The locations have been realized for a total of 75,000 new homes, the Cabinet said. This includes 63,000 built near Utrecht, another 6,500 in Haarlemmermeer close to Nieuw-Vennep and Lisserbroek, and about 5,000 near Lansingerland. Large-scale housing construction has been considered for these polders for years.
There is also talk of an agreement on building 10,000 additional homes in disadvantaged neighborhoods like Rotterdam Zuid and Amsterdam Zuidoost. These districts are currently receiving additional funding from the government to improve liveability.
Seven municipalities have agreed to realize flexible districts, according to RTL Nieuws. These include Goes, Doetinchem, Dronten, Enschede, Apeldoorn, Hollandse Kroon, and the mining region in Zuid-Limburg. The flexible districts will consist of 300 prefab homes and 200 empty lots, kept aside for existing flexible homes that need to be moved to make space for permanent construction. The government wants to create 4,300 of these lots between 2027 and 2029.
Two-thirds of new construction must also be affordable, the parties agreed. The newly-built homes will be sold below the National Mortgage Guarantee (NHG) limit, currently fixed at 435,000 euros. There is enough money to cover this for the coming five years, but regionally, the municipalities need to put up more money to make this happen.
Rental tenants association Woonbond has not signed on to the deal, as concerns remain about the current Cabinet's unwillingness to further limit rental price increases.
