Realization Incentive Finalized: Fixed Contribution from 2026 for Municipalities Building Affordable Housing

Minister Mona Keijzer of Housing and Spatial Planning (HSP): “The housing shortage is severe and all municipalities contribute to the solution. With the Realization Incentive, we support every municipality that builds affordable homes: simple, predictable, and with limited administrative burdens.”

The Realization Incentive makes building affordable homes more feasible throughout the Netherlands. Municipalities receive the contribution based on the number of affordable homes whose construction started in the previous year. The scheme contributes to achieving sufficient affordable housing: social rental, mid-rent, and affordable owner-occupied homes. Approximately €2.5 billion is available for the scheme in total.

Together with the Housing Construction Impulse and the Area Budget, the Realization Incentive forms a coherent package of financial schemes with which the national government supports municipalities in their housing construction tasks.

Municipalities can use the contribution of €7,000 per home at their discretion. The scheme is intended to strengthen local housing construction and offers municipalities the freedom to spend the funds in the way that best suits their housing construction challenges. They can, for example, use the funds for investments in area development, setting up a fund for affordable housing, or reserving the funds for future projects.

Municipalities can apply for the contribution for all homes that start construction in 2025 and fall within the affordable segment (projects that have previously received a contribution from, for example, the Housing Construction Impulse are excluded). To provide a complete registration later, it is important to start now with keeping track of homes whose construction started in 2025. This means: checking whether homes fall within the affordable segment, registering the start of construction of affordable new homes in the Basic Registration Addresses and Buildings (BAG), identifying new homes created through transformation, and verifying whether projects have not previously received a contribution from the national government under another housing scheme.

The annual report of homes whose construction has started is submitted via the regular SiSa accountability moment.

• The full scheme can be found in the Government Gazette. On the website of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), additional information about the conditions, implementation, and registration process will soon be published. Municipalities will be informed as soon as this information is available.
• In a guide for municipalities, the Ministry of HSP provides tips and examples for using the contribution. The guide will be published soon.
• On Thursday, November 27, the Ministry of HSP, together with RVO, will organize a webinar about the Realization Incentive. During this webinar, the guide will be explained and municipalities will receive instructions on registering started homes. Registration for the webinar is possible via the RVO website.