The Netherlands 500 plus housing corporations lost a total of over €2bn last year, according to calculations by Nos tv.

Charged with providing cheap accommodation, some corporations lost tens of millions of euros last year and expect further losses in 2009 and next year, Nos said.
Nos bases its calculations on the annual reports of 364 housing corporations.
Earlier this month, the housing corporation umbrella group Aedes put the average loss at €1.2m per organisation.
Aedes said then unless the government takes urgent action to reform the housing market, the social housing sector could disappear altogether. Government regulations, tough rules on rent increases and rising construction costs were make it increasingly difficult for corporations to invest in cheaper housing, Aedes said.
Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the supervisory board at Amsterdam corporation Stadsgenoot, which lost €88m last year, said the standstill would last for several years.
‘You have to ask if investing in neighbourhoods and infrastructure are really core tasks,’ he said, referring to the government’s insistence that corporations put money into renovating key run-down areas.