Housing corporations are opposed to government plans to force them to sell housing to interested sitting tenants for discounted prices, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Friday.

Sources have told the paper ministers are working on legislation to force corporations to offer tenants the right to buy. But the corporations, who currently sell off housing on a strategic basis, will fight the plans tooth and nail, the paper says.
The housing ministry declined to comment on the right-to-buy rumours, saying the suggestion still had to be discussed in cabinet.
Gaps
Housing corporations say the move will lead to gaps in the housing supply and warn that new home owners will be faced with renovation and other costs that they do not expect.
‘This will hit the housing corporations in the heart,’ said Jim Schuyt, chairman of a body representing 21 large housing groups. ‘It will cause major problems for property management. Housing corporations are happy to sell property but there has to be a strategy behind it.’
The Netherlands has 500 or so housing corporations which rent out, maintain and manage 2.4 million homes – over one-third of the country’s housing stock. Housing corporations mostly focus on the rent- controlled sector but are also branching out into more expensive homes.