‘New rent rules threaten student housing’

A company which specialises in housing students says the new government’s plans to change the way rents in the social housing sector are calculated will make it impossible to break even.


Housing group Duwo, which operates student complexes in several university cities, say it has already scrapped plans to build 520 student rooms in Delft because of the changes.
The new government plans to fix annual social housing rents at 4.5% of the official value of the property or Woz value, used by the council to calculate local taxes. Prices are currently calculated according to a points system, depending on their size and the facilities.
Lower rent
This means rents for thousands of student rooms will come down because they are often in unpopular areas on the edge of cities.
‘It sounds great but it will be disastrous for students,’ student union LSVb told the Volkskrant. The Netherlands has a serious shortage of student accommodation in some places.
Duwo told the paper the rent for a room in one popular Delft complex will come down from €189 to around €80 a month if the Woz value is used.
In addition, the group claims it will also have to pay the government an extra €11m in taxes a year while its income will go down by some €6m.
Many housing corporations also say they will be hard hit by the extra taxes.
Are you a student? How much rent do you pay?

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