Tenants the victim of changes to rent regulation, interest group says

The changes to the rules for rental properties proposed by the housing minister Mona Keijzer should "not come at the expense of tenants", the Woonbond has said. The housing association thinks that is the case with the new plans. “If the goal is to make renting a home more attractive, then the minister should do something about the tax that tenants are paying to her.”

The Woonbond thinks this would be a lot more effective and would not affect the housing costs of tenants. “The changes that the minister is proposing now are meant to improve landlords’ returns. By doing this, the minister is hoping to stop landlords from selling their rental properties.”

Keijzer proposed the changes in a letter to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, on Thursday. The minister has concluded that it is mainly private landlords who are selling their rental properties.

The reasons for this are an apparent combination of rule changes and economic circumstances, one of which is the Affordable Rent Act which has applied since July. This law meant that more rental homes had a maximum price that they could charge tenants.

This law is doing the job it was supposed to, but it would never solve all the housing issues, the Woonbond said. So now that there are still housing problems after the introduction of the Affordable Rent Act, the reflex should not be to throw that law out the window."

The housing minister also wrote that she is planning on changing the WOZ-cap. That is the rule that the WOZ valuation of a home may count for a maximum of one-third when determining the rent. This change could lead to a rental price increase of dozens of euros.

But that is not the first change to this rule, the Woonbond stated. “The ‘WOZ cap’ is possibly going into a new chapter, with which the minister would be successful in making an incredibly complicated rule even more complex,” the association said.

"Fortunately, this latest change does not appear to affect many homes, but the fiddling in the system makes it impossible for all tenants to follow,” the Woonbond added.

Keijzer has refuted the criticism that her proposal for a new rental law will actually drive up prices for tenants. “I want to prevent homes being sold for around 400,000 euros so that it continues to be available for people with a middle-class income.”

The BBB minister said prior to the weekly council of ministers meeting that this is the only thing she can do at short notice to prevent landlords from putting their rental properties up for sale.

Various political parties criticized the idea. “They are allowed to, but I am taking my responsibility. There is a group of people with middle-class incomes that depend on rented housing, I want to ensure that these homes remain available," Keijzer said about her decision.