The Netherlands may not reach their housing construction goals due to migration, rising construction costs and a lack of available land, Housing and Spatial Planning Minister Hugo De Jonge (CDA/EPP) said in a progress report in parliament Monday.
The Netherlands has been mired in a housing crisis for several years, with the cabinet having set a target of 900,000 additional housing units to be built by 2030.
“Housing demand is growing stronger than expected, mainly due to migration,” De Jonge stated in the progress report.
“At the same time, financial conditions for housing construction, especially in the short term, have become more difficult. This further increases the urgency to join forces to continue building […] sufficient appropriate housing,” he added.
In 2022, migration to the Netherlands significantly increased, mainly due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, resulting in the population growing by 227,000 that year – compared to the 115,000 increase in 2021.
Despite 90,000 additional housing units being built last year – which is on target for the 2030 goal – the construction of new housing units will become more difficult in the coming years as construction costs and interest have risen. As such, the Economic Institute for Construction (EIB) estimates that housing construction will go down by 3.5 % in 2023 and 5.5 % in 2024 compared to the year prior.
“The situation remains uncertain, but in any case, the expectation is that there will be a sharp dip in 2024,” De Jonge stated.
To safeguard housing construction in the short term, De Jonge is promising to invest at least €250 million into short-term housing construction projects, as well as €300 million into the construction of so-called “flex housing”, which is meant to accommodate Ukrainian refugees as well as other asylum seekers.
De Jonge also called on communities to find alternative locations for construction and accelerate the housing construction process, which currently takes up to 10 years on average.
(Benedikt Stöckl | EURACTIV.com)
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