Housing associations are eager to solve the housing crisis but need more guidance from Housing and Spatial Planning Minister Hugo de Jonge, said Ymere’s CEO Erik Gerritsen.
De Jonge’s Residential Building program aims to create 900,000 homes by 2030.
“We are faced with persistently high construction prices, with limited availability of material, with uncertainty about matters such as the nitrogen issue, the rise in interest rates, and the tightness of the labour market,” De Jong wrote in an action plan sent to the House of Representatives on 19 January.
However, the Dutch Economic Institute for Construction reported that construction companies are expected to deliver 10% fewer houses over the next two years than in 2022.
According to de Jonge, the issue is not financial, but rather the procedure that goes into building the houses. “Building a house, from plan to realisation, takes an average of ten years. This should and can be shorter,” he said.
Additionally, municipalities need to start building on spaces that can be developed quickly. “Not every green space is nature to be protected; sometimes a meadow is just a meadow and can be built on,” he said, NL Times reported.
(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
