Alderman Van Niejenhuis: “The major development sites will make the difference”

Building Groningen’s housing happiness. That’s the name of the Housing Plan adopted by the municipal executive in February. And we are going to build. At the major development sites De Suikerzijde, De Nieuwe Held, Stadshavens, De Eems and in Meerstad. But also: on top of Winkelcentrum Paddepoel, in a former school on Travertijnstraat in Vinkhuizen and in our villages. Because experiencing housing happiness should not be a matter of luck.

Alderman for Housing Rik van Niejenhuis: “Everyone in our municipality should be able to find a suitable home within a reasonable period of time. That is my ambition.”

“To achieve our goal – housing happiness for everyone in Groningen – we can roughly do two things as a municipality,” Rik explains. “First, we can build a lot of new homes. We are doing this at the major development sites, but also in other parts of the city and the villages. And second, we can do a lot with the existing housing stock. We are protecting it through the anti-speculation measure, limiting tourist rental of residential space and promoting good landlordship.”

“What we can also do with existing homes is add extra floors: adding one or two residential floors. Together with the housing corporations, we are analysing which buildings are suitable for this. They own many homes. We are now really getting to work on this. With this, we aim to create 2,000 additional homes within the existing housing stock.”

Neighbourhoods with quality

“The home is a basic need, but we also ensure a pleasant living environment,” Rik continues. “We are building neighbourhoods with quality. In De Suikerzijde, we have already started building the school. We are providing plenty of green outdoor space, playgrounds and community centres. We are building for the society of the future and for the mixed city, with a mix of owner-occupied, rental and social housing. The first residential complex in De Suikerzijde is social housing. We have said that we want to experience this immediately. These homes are of the same high quality as the owner-occupied homes. Everything will look very nice.”

“With KoopGarant, we offer discounts on owner-occupied homes,” Rik explains. “This ensures that homes remain affordable. In De Suikerzijde, the first homes with KoopGarant have already been sold.”

The municipality and the housing corporations set themselves an annual target for the number of homes to be built. These targets are not always met. Why will it work this time? Rik: “What makes the difference now is that we have started building at sites like De Suikerzijde. This neighbourhood on the former Suikerunieterrein is now taking off and will deliver 200 homes per year. This is already happening in Meerstad, and after De Suikerzijde we will also build many homes in Stadshavens, De Nieuwe Held and De Eems. Suddenly, alongside Meerstad, you have a whole series of development sites that will each deliver hundreds of homes per year. That will really make a difference. And we will also add many homes in other parts of the city, such as the northern neighbourhoods. That gives me a lot of confidence that we will achieve the target of an average of 1,600 homes per year in the coming years. And more is always possible.”

Industrialised construction

“With our Housing Plan, we are also focusing on more industrialised construction. For De Nieuwe Held, for example, we have already made concrete agreements with a system builder. This also helps to meet the targets, because a conventional home takes one to one and a half years to build. Homes from the factory can be completed in just a few months. That’s very fast. And it’s also cheaper and more sustainable. It produces far less waste and the homes are of such high quality that you can’t tell they were factory-built. From now on, industrialised construction must be the starting point for all municipal tenders for 50 or more homes.”

“Of course, we are not only building for couples and families, but also for students, young people and the elderly. They often live independently, in single-person households. In Reitdiepswaard, along the Friesestraatweg, we are building homes, among other things, for young people. And we continue to add apartment buildings for the elderly in existing neighbourhoods, such as recently in Lewenborg. And soon we will have the high-rise buildings on top of Winkelcentrum Paddepoel. Very suitable for elderly people in the area, with the shopping centre on the ground floor as a cosy meeting place.”

Finally, the villages. “We also have a housing construction programme for the villages – either already in the pipeline or ready to go. Villages can put forward building sites themselves and think along about what they consider promising. We guide this process from the municipality. In Thesinge, for example, the municipality even bought a farm to transform it into homes.”

Housing happiness in Thesinge

“We won’t be building large numbers in the villages,” Rik knows. “It’s really about keeping the village liveable. Think of increasing the number of homes by ten percent over ten years. For a village like Thesinge, that’s quite a lot. Then, within the village, children who have moved out or elderly people who want to downsize can find a suitable home. That, to me, is housing happiness. If you’ve always lived in Thesinge but are getting older and your home is too big, it would of course be wonderful to move into a small apartment in that beautiful old farmhouse you’ve known all your life.”