Many social housing tenants will pay €60 more in monthly rent due to gov’t budget plans

Social housing tenants in the private sector already pay more than people who rent a home via a housing association, but the tenants will lose even more money if the decision is made to have the planned rent price freeze not apply to the private sector. This was reported by the Woonbond after using numbers from Statistics Netherlands for their calculation.

Private sector social housing tenants pay 81 euros more per month than social housing tenants, but that is set to jump to an average of about 140 euros per month because of the policy plans. When calculated over the course of a year, private sector social tenants will spend 1,680 euros more per year, an increase of almost 710 euros.

The coalition parties recently announced in the Spring Memorandum that the rent prices for tenants in social housing will not rise for the rest of this year or next year.

The Woonbond reported last week that it was unclear whether the measure would also apply to tenants of social housing in the private sector. Otherwise, their rent prices would rise by a maximum of five percent from July 1 and are expected to rise further next year. “This while many people are renting on a tight budget,” the Woonbond said.

According to the numbers provided by Statistics Netherlands, tenants in the social sector paid 607 euros in bare rent with housing associations and 688 euros in the private sector in 2024. The Woonbond wants housing minister Mona Keijzer to add the tenants in the private sector to the homes included in the price freeze.

"Not only do these tenants benefit from a rent freeze, they are already paying more rent for homes that are often of inferior quality. The minister is also creating legal inequality by treating social tenants unequally," the interest group stated.