Urgente Zaken: episode 'How Housing Management tackles the housing shortage

The meeting takes place on the twentieth floor of the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, with a view of the sea. The conversation centres around the housing shortage in the Netherlands, its origins, various approaches to solving it, and the opportunities we can seize in the coming years.

A retrospective look reveals how, in the aftermath of World War II, we managed to build 100,000 homes per year through significant efforts. However, by the end of the last century, we gradually lost that momentum due to the real estate and credit crises, but more so because of a retreating government that left too much to the market.

Nevertheless, the discussion primarily focuses on the present and the future. Kuijpers identifies the top three current bottlenecks: insufficient sites and plans, prolonged decision-making processes, and highly restrictive preconditions—such as network congestion and nitrogen issues, as well as a lack of capacity within municipalities, provinces, and market participants. Both speakers highlight what we can learn from the foundation of the Implementation Organisation for Accelerating Temporary Housing, which advocated for 'flex construction' and was established within weeks to successfully expedite realisation through dedicated teams.

Lessons for the future that Middelkoop and Kuijpers draw include the need for new forms of commissioning, exemplified by the Rijksvastgoedbedrijf, which ordered 2,000 flexible homes without having a definitive operator or location in place. This initiative led to housing corporations collectively organising a tender.

The conversation also addresses the landlord levy that corporations had to pay for years, which caused a reduction in their contributions—but now they are beginning to invest again in sustainability and new construction. They discuss the new Directorate for Housing Project Realisation and positive initiatives like the recent Woontop, where all parties convened to discuss and make agreements. "And also look at the Vinex approach, where intensive public-private cooperation led to large-scale new construction. At that time, there was a great deal of trust between the government and the market. We will need that again. If we can maintain that decisiveness in implementation over the coming years, we can make significant progress."

"Key points mentioned to effectively tackle the housing shortage include fully committing to results-oriented public-private collaboration, especially in execution, and avoiding excessive requirements for new projects. The legislative proposal for Strengthening Housing Management, which puts the government back in charge, was also discussed.

Finally, a notable example was shared: a project in Rijnmond where a calendar was created, featuring a personal story for each of the 365 days. These stories belong to individuals searching for housing, including starters, as well as those going through separation or facing eviction. "People’s lives are on hold. Sometimes for years. We do this for those individuals."

Want to read more about opportunities to further stimulate the housing market? About the bottlenecks and the solutions? Discover what steps we can already take in the article 'Addressing the housing shortage: it begins with management, connection, and simplification.'