Measures for the Preservation of Mid-Rent Housing to Both Chambers

The measures follow monitoring of the effects of recent rental regulations, including the Affordable Rent Act and the Fixed Rental Contracts Act, and fiscal rules in the rental market. This shows that the private rental market shrank slightly in 2024. Given the high demand for affordable rental housing, the supply must actually grow. Especially private landlords in cities are selling their homes because mid-rent has become less profitable for them, and selling the property at market price yields more. This increases the significant shortage of affordable rental homes in the Netherlands.

“With these measures, I want to ensure that landlords continue to rent instead of selling their properties,” says Minister Keijzer. “Renting must be profitable for landlords and rent must be affordable for tenants. With these adjustments, this will be better balanced, so that more affordable rental homes remain available for tenants.”

Three of the four measures fall within the WWS, the points system used to assess homes to arrive at a fair rental price. For homes subject to the current WOZ cap, which limits the inclusion of a high WOZ value in the rental price in popular locations, a price increase will apply. This allows landlords to charge the maximum rent based on the original point total without these homes exceeding the mid-rent threshold into the free sector. Additionally, the WOZ value of small national monuments will be weighted more heavily in the WWS, and the five penalty points for the complete absence of outdoor space will be removed. Landlords can only increase the rent to the new maximum if a new rental contract is concluded.

For all students, it must again be possible to conclude a temporary rental contract. Currently, only students moving from another municipality to the city where they will study can receive a one-time temporary contract for a maximum of 2 years. This will now also apply to students already living in that municipality. This gives them an equal chance of a room with a temporary rental contract.

Temporary contracts offer landlords more flexibility and thereby reduce the chance that homes will be sold, a phenomenon known as uitponden. Nationwide, almost half of the student housing is in the hands of private landlords.