The government is structurally allocating an extra 100 million euros for making social rental homes more sustainable. Housing corporations will receive this amount annually starting next year, sources around the cabinet told RTL Nieuws.
The extra investment will officially be announced on Budget Day, on September 20th, according to the broadcaster. In the coalition agreement the government already promised housing corporations 100 million euros structurally to make their homes more sustainable.
Over a thousand people expressed support online for an establishment of the members-only club Soho House to open in Amsterdam. Previous plans to open an Amsterdam branch of the exclusive club, were blocked by the Amsterdam court last month, AT5 reports.
Housing corporations will again start investing more into maintenance and renovation of social rental housing, national association Aedes announced. More rental housing will also be built, NAP reports.
According to Aedes, most housing corporations are doing better. Which means that there is more financial room for maintenance and improvements, such as new central heating, insulation and double glazing. "In the coming year 30 thousand major home improvements of more than 20 thousand euros per home will be carried out", a spokesperson for Aedes said.
Tenants association Woonbond is suing the Dutch state to refund hundreds of thousands of renters for "unjustified rent increases". According to the association, the tax authorities illegally shared tenants' information with landlords for years, which resulted in higher rent increases, RTL Nieuws reports. From 2013 all tenants with a gross annual income of 33,600 euros or higher received an income related rent increase. That involves hundreds of thousands of tenants. The tax Authorities sent income details about these tenants to housing associations and private landlords for this reason.
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
Housing corporations association Aedes, the Housing Association and the association of Dutch municipalities VNG are calling for the landlords tax to be abolished. A study by the University of Groningen showes that the tax has a negative impact on the availability of social housing and on households with low incomes,
Amsterdam housing corporations are working hard in The Hague lobbying for higher rent increases than was agreed upon on in the Housing Agreement.
Three quarters of Dutch housing corporations noticed a significant increase in disturbances caused by disturbed tenants since the decentralization of healthcare at the start of 2015, according to a study done by housing dome Aedes among 174 corporations.
Housing corporations are planning unorthodox measures to provide housing to tens of thousands of refugees with a residency permit in the coming months. State Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff agrees that unorthodox measures are needed to find homes for refugees.
Chinese-Dutch real estate company CTF completed the purchase of the former Paleis van Justitie, literally the "Justice Palace" in the center of Amsterdam for 61.3 Million Euros. It was the second attempt by the firm to pick up the historic building on the famed Prinsengracht canal.
Rent prices for most social housing will increase less sharply from next year. Aedes, the association for housing corporations which represents about 90 percent of the corporations in the Netherlands, and Woonbond, the association for tenants, have reached an agreement to increase rents with less than the current legal maximum.
A total of 5,900 tenants were evicted from their homes last year, a 15 percent decrease compared to 2013. This is despite the fact that there was a significant increase in the number of tenants with rental arrears.
University of Amsterdam's (UvA) humanities building, the Bungehuis, is scheduled for development into an exclusive, membership-only Soho House club, real estate developer Aedes announced.
More than a quarter of Dutch municipalities are facing problems in providing housing for the people who want to live there. There will be more refugees to the Netherlands and the result is that waiting time for anyone on a waiting list will increase, according to a survey of 326 municipalities. The questionnaire, created by regional broadcasters and NOS, could not get 67 additional municipalities to take part
Tenants are staging mass protests against a new regulation that would see hundreds of thousands of people earning above average pay an extra 4-6.5 percent on their rent per 1 July. Hundreds of people have announced that they are landing in money problems because of this.
For new renters, social housing in Utrecht and Amsterdam has become almost €100 more expensive in the last year. For low-income households, the available homes are more often unaffordable because of this, which has also risen eviction figures, the Volkskrant reports.
Last year, there were 6980 evictions from homes, the AD reports. This is a rise of 8 percent in comparison to 2012.
