Wealthier tenants to pay more for rent-controlled homes

The cabinet is pressing ahead with plans to allow housing corporations and private landlords to make wealthier people pay more to live in rent-controlled housing.


The plan will affect households with an income of more than €43,000 a year. From next July, landlords will be able to charge them a rent increase of inflation plus 5%.
The aim of the plan is to encourage higher earners to move out of the social housing sector and reduce the waiting lists for cheap homes. Flats and houses with a monthly rent of below around €630 fall into the rent-controlled sector.

Housing stock

Rent-controlled properties, which account for around 50% of the Dutch housing stock, are supposed to be reserved for low-income households.
However, in Amsterdam, for example, some 30% of rent-controlled property is lived in by people who technically earn too much to qualify.
It is not yet clear how landlords will be able to check tenants’ income, but home affairs minister Piet Hein Donner says the information will come from the tax office.
The housing corporation association Aedes is opposed to the plan, saying it is bureaucratic and involves social housing landlords in income politics.

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