Government pledges more money to speed up house construction

Telegraaf sources say the Dutch government is poised to announce several plans to alleviate problems on the housing market, including €246 million to speed up processes, and a relaxation of the new rent control rules.

The plans are set to be sent to parliament later this week, the paper said on Monday.

The government wants the sector to realise 100,000 new homes a year, but that target has not been reached since it was brought in several years ago.

Some €156 million will be spent on a flexible pool of 200 to 220 extra civil servants to speed up the permit process and bring in more expertise for complex cases, the Telegraaf said.

Housing minister Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan also wants to invest €90 million in encouraging the development of prefab homes. By 2030, half of all new-builds should be prefabricated, the paper said.

The new government said when it took office it wants to stimulate housing development and the investment climate, and is cutting the property transfer tax for investors from 8% to 7%. It also said it wants to boost the affordable rental market, but did not publish details of how this should happen.

The Telegraaf now says the government is planning to change rental housing legislation to allow landlords to charge more for some properties.

The current restrictions have led landlords to sell off smaller properties in particular, reducing the number of rental homes in the big cities in particular. The total supply of rental homes has fallen by 16,000 over the past two years, taking the percentage of private rental homes on the market down from 9.4% to 9%, the land registry office said in February.

One third of a property’s value is currently used to calculate “points” used to establish maximum rents for a property, and that may be relaxed, the sources said, allowing landlords to charge more.