You may be wondering how on earth it is still possible for rental properties to be offered for rent. Surely we all agreed that the rental market should simply cease to exist? Everyone should just buy a condo. Whether they earn enough or not. Not enough income to buy? Then one should just continue to live with his/her parents regardless of whether you are heading towards 40 or not. Breaking up with your partner? Then you should try harder and just keep living together until you like each other again or until someone packs their sleeping bag and moves into the barn (also a good solution, by the way).
As an estate agent, we recently had to offer a property for a client which was 50m2 and for a bare rent of €1400 per month. We had 60 responses in 2 hours. You heard correctly: ONLY 60 responses. Why weren’t these 300 responses or 500 responses?
You see: the current government policy of completely eliminating the rental market is not yet enough.
Buy-up protection, levying a flat rate of return on rental properties, raising the transfer tax to 10.4%, introducing the middle rent ánd abolishing temporary leases….it was all not enough.
After all, the goal of the current government policy was really to put an end once and for all to rental housing where the big bad landlords still receive rent and grab returns (even if negative) for their investments! Naughty landlords!
Government policies need to be even stricter, because apparently there are still people who occasionally manage to rent housing. Shame!
So GO Hugo and GO NL government with your battle in the rental market. Hang in there and step it up a notch and then by the end of 2024, hopefully no one will be renting or leasing housing!
Update latest state of fixed-rent law and Affordable Middle Rent Act
Currently, it is still expected that on July 1, 2024, the Fixed Lease Law will take effect. The effective date of this law is not yet certain, as an Order in Council has yet to be issued designating specific groups with whom it will still be possible to conclude temporary leases. For example, it seems that an exception is going to be made for rentals to international students, among others. It does NOT look like an exception is going to be made for expats.
The Affordable Middle Rent Act, which also regulates the new liberalization limit, is also planned to take effect July 1, 2024. This would mean that the majority of free sector housing would no longer be free sector housing, and the rent would be limited to a rent that almost most landlords would begin to make a loss on.
More on this topic? Also check out our article on “why no one can get a rental house anymore in the Netherlands.
This is a terrible and very worrisome development that threatens to render homeless millions of house seekers who can only access the rental market. Despite all the advice (including from the Council of State), the current administration is still pushing ahead with the plans at this time. Landlords and real estate investors are always desperately needed (albeit under fair game rules) in facilitating housing for a wide range of target groups.