Cabinet Reduces Regulatory Burden on Housing Construction: Cheaper Building Along the Railway, More Exemptions from Permits, and Faster Handling of Objections

Minister Keijzer: ‘We have a significant housing shortage in the Netherlands, making it increasingly difficult for starters, families, and vulnerable groups to find an affordable and suitable home. Housing construction has become too complex due to numerous regulations, lengthy procedures, and rising costs. Therefore, I have asked an external advisory group to come up with concrete proposals to reduce the regulatory burden. We are adopting most of these recommendations and taking an important step towards building at least 100,000 new homes per year.’

The cabinet wants to build more homes. To stimulate this, the cabinet proposes the following measures based on STOER:

• Easier and cheaper construction by not raising noise standards along the railway

• Clear national agreements on water and soil

• Timely availability of utilities

• Simpler flora and fauna procedures

• Addressing bottlenecks in spraying zones and nature regulations

Railway zones are interesting construction locations due to good accessibility, but increasingly strict noise standards hinder housing construction. The decision-making on stricter noise standards along railways will not proceed, eliminating the need for expensive facade adjustments. Additionally, work is underway on a new, simpler method for assessing the cumulative noise from aircraft noise. When building homes, we also consider water and soil. To make building in areas vulnerable to flooding more predictable, a uniform standard will be introduced. To make homes livable, energy and drinking water are necessary. Therefore, the cabinet is working to ensure the availability of drinking water and addressing network congestion.

Flora and fauna also deserve protection, but due to complicated procedures, it takes a long time to obtain permits for housing construction and renovation. The cabinet is exploring whether this process can be expedited through a national network of Species Management Plans (SMPs). Additionally, the cabinet will provide practical guidelines to clarify rules for building near agricultural land. Furthermore, the cabinet is advocating in Brussels for the easing of nature compensation procedures.

STOER also encourages making housing construction cheaper with the following measures:

• Easing construction technical requirements

• Free access to building standards

• More room for factory-built construction

• Digitalization and standardization

The easing of the Building Decree (Bbl) will be presented to the Chamber in the spring of 2026. This will introduce more flexible rules for stairs, ceiling height, and sound between rooms. We will also roll back daylight standards and limit the checklist obligation for safe building maintenance. This leads to lower construction costs without losing sight of safety and health. Starting next month, the NEN standards designated in building regulations will be available for free online. This will lower design and execution costs. Additionally, the permit and notification obligation for technical construction activities at homes with a recognized quality declaration for construction and assembly on site will be abolished. This will enable faster and cheaper series construction. The cabinet will also standardize data exchange in construction. This will prevent duplicate research and reduce costs and lead times.

To contribute to faster construction, the cabinet proposes the following measures based on STOER:

• Faster handling of objection and appeal procedures

• Priority for legal cases

• More implementation capacity at municipalities and provinces

• Faster and smarter investigations

• More pragmatic environmental impact assessments (MER) and archaeological research

Legal procedures lead to significant delays in housing construction. To limit these delays, objection and appeal procedures will be handled more quickly, and housing construction procedures will be prioritized at the Council of State. The cabinet aims to expedite decision-making by other authorities and focuses on increasing the implementation capacity of municipalities and provinces.