In 2022, 162,500 social housing units became available for other households to move into. These units were not shared by multiple households. Nearly 7 percent (11,000 units) of these were allocated to a household with a status holder. In the four previous years, this percentage ranged between 4 and 6 percent.
Over 3 percent of the released social housing units (nearly 6,000) were allocated to status holders who either received a residence permit in 2022 or were living in a (temporary) shelter location of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) at the start of 2022 with a previously obtained residence permit. Additionally, over 3 percent were allocated to status holders who had a residence permit for more than a year and were no longer living in a COA shelter location. Municipalities are responsible for the initial housing of status holders.
Households with status holders moving to social housing were more often couples with children compared to households without status holders. Conversely, households without a status holder moving to social housing were more likely to be single-person households, single-parent families, or couples without children.
Status holders in social housing were more often newcomers to the housing market in 2022 than in previous years, meaning they did not leave a vacant home after moving. In 2022, 19 percent of households with status holders who were allocated social housing left a vacant home, compared to 36 percent in 2018. Households without status holders left a vacant home more frequently, with slightly more than half doing so between 2018 and 2022.
More than 60 percent of households with a status holder were newcomers to the housing market in 2022 (nearly 7,000 households). In 2018, this was 39 percent. Of all 76,000 households that moved to a social housing unit in 2022 and did not leave a vacant home, 12 percent were households with status holders.
In 2022, 24 percent of couples with a status holder and children left a vacant home. For couples without status holders with children, this was 82 percent. Of all social housing units allocated to couples with children who did not leave a vacant home (nearly 5,000), 57 percent were allocated to households with status holders. Single-person households without status holders left a vacant home nearly four times as often as status holders.
The proportion of social housing allocated to households with status holders varied by region in 2022. In the Southeast Drenthe region, the share of released social housing with a status holder as a new resident was relatively high (11 percent). It was also relatively high in the Alkmaar area, Haarlem agglomeration, and the rest of Zeeland (between 9 and 10 percent). In Twente, this was the lowest at 1 percent. Compared to 2018, especially in the northern provinces and Zeeland, more social housing units were allocated to status holders.
In 2022, 269,000 people moved into the 162,500 released social housing units. Of these, 24,000 people (9 percent) were status holders. The higher percentage of status holders moving to social housing on an individual level (compared to 7 percent on a household level) is because households without status holders consisted of fewer people on average than households with status holders.
By the end of 2022, there were 2.1 million social housing units. Of these, nearly 46,000 (2.1 percent) were inhabited by a household with a status holder. Including former status holders who have since obtained Dutch nationality, nearly 161,000 social housing units housed at least one (former) status holder. This represents 7.5 percent of all social housing units.