Public Housing Minister Hugo de Jonge sent the House for All program to the House of Representatives. The aim of the program is to provide residents of the Netherlands with affordable housing. It is planned that the share of social housing in each municipality (gemeente) should be at least 30% of the housing stock.
Minister de Jonge points out that at present the stock of social rental housing is extremely unevenly distributed among the municipalities. Some large cities, such as Amsterdam and Groningen, have a lot of social housing, but in smaller cities and suburbs, this share is often less than 20% of the housing stock. Such municipalities should build more affordable housing to reach the 30% housing stock. For those localities where the percentage of social housing is above this bar, it is better to focus on building houses for people with an average income.
The Home for All program aims to build 2030 affordable apartments by 600. Of these, 000 are to be built in housing association-managed homes for the country's most vulnerable residents. According to De Jonge, municipalities should establish rules that give priority to low-cost housing for vulnerable groups: the homeless, refugees, people discharged from social care institutions, those released from prisons and others in need of urgent medical or social assistance.
The Minister says that the demand for affordable housing is constantly growing, while in recent years, the percentage of such housing construction has been declining. The Minister proposes, as a last resort, to give the provinces the right to intervene in the affairs of municipalities that do not want to increase the share of affordable housing.
Find out more about housing programs in the Netherlands.
Publication Date: 23.05.2022
