The lessons learned in creating innovative and iconic buildings are being used to create affordable housing and stronger communities, says Gideon Maasland, director and an architect at MVRDV, one of the Holland Metropole alliance’s design partners.

Last year, Ballast Nedam Development became the first residential developer in the Netherlands to kick off the market for carbon credits derived from developing and building climate positive homes. Now the company has introduced carbon credits for apartments, through its Horizon’s project in Amsterdam.

The Dutch government has published more details about its plans to get the residential market moving again and is hosting a housing summit with investors, developers, housing corporations, and local authorities later in the year.

Area development is about more than just coming up with a house or a row of houses, says Helma Born, who has just taken over as new managing director of BPD in the Netherlands.

“Working in inner city locations demands more of developers given the complexity of current rules and the need to fit in with the community already there,” says Lonneke Zuijdwijk, who joined the management board of Heijmans Vastgoed as director this summer.

Urban planning in the Netherlands must be focused on densification, based around sufficient amenities, good public transport and green streetscapes, Edward Schuurmans, partner at KCAP said in an interview ahead of the Expo Real property trade fair in Munich.

“This really is the right time to step into the Netherlands as a foreign investor,” says Ronald Huikeshoven, managing director of area developer AM and new chairman of Dutch developers association NEPROM. “The government is ready, developers are ready and the councils are ready. Everyone is combining their strengths to focus on affordable, residential area development.”

Legislation to bring more homes under the Dutch rent control system have been approved by the senate and are set to become law in the Netherlands on July 1. Government officials say the new rules will result in some 90% of Dutch rental housing falling under some form of rent control although they will only apply to new tenancies.

Holland Metropole cities, developers and investors are again taking part at the annual Dutch real estate fair Provada, which runs for three days from June 11 at the RAI exhibition centre in Amsterdam. 

The number of privately-owned rental homes in the Netherlands rose by a net 67,000 between 2021 and 2023, and most of the growth was down to new build and the transformation of existing buildings, according to Dutch national statistics agency CBS.

A former industrial area in The Hague is to be transformed into a residential district with 9,000 homes and city officials have just published their vision for the new development.

New research by Cushman & Wakefield, on behalf of the Holland Metropole alliance, provides tools for the Dutch Home Affairs Ministry to make the housing investment market more attractive. Improvements, the research suggests, should be based on the following four aspects: 

Housing minister Hugo de Jonge has published finalised and long-awaited legislation aimed at cutting red tape and speeding up the Dutch house building programme.

Holland Metropole partners are among the 12 real estate sector groups which have called on the government to take urgent action to tackle the country’s “huge housing shortage”.

There is enough space to build hundreds of thousands of new homes in post-WWII parts of Dutch towns and cities, according to research by a Dutch architects’ office on behalf of the country’s housing corporations. 

Housing minister Hugo de Jonge has made a major concession to developers who are concerned his plans to extend rent controls to cover more residential property would hurt investments, by allowing them to add a 10% supplement to the rent for new build. 

After months of decline, the market for newly-built homes in the Netherlands seems to be improving, with estate agents reporting 8% more sales in the final three months of last year. And compared with 2022 Q4, sales of new build properties are up 57%, according to figures from estate agents organisation NVM.

Rotterdam will soon be home to one of the longest rooftop parks in the world – a two-kilometre-long, six-metre-wide walkway on top of a former train viaduct between the port city and the resort of Scheveningen near The Hague. 

Holland Metropole partner Bouwinvest and two of the Netherlands’ biggest pension funds have agreed to work together to boost the stock of affordable and care-related homes in the Netherlands through a new Social Impact Real Estate Partnership. 

The five Holland Metropole partner cities will get a combined €100 million from a special Dutch government fund to stimulate affordable housing projects which are at the planning stage but threatened by the current slowdown in housing construction.

The government’s most senior advisory body, the Council of State, has told housing minister Hugo de Jonge to improve his draft legislation aimed at increasing the amount of rent-controlled property in the Netherlands. 

Rotterdam receives €26.7 million from the government for the construction of new homes that are at risk of stalling, due to increased interest rates and construction costs. With this financial support from the ‘Startbouwimpuls, Rotterdam can build 2,647 homes within the next two years, with 64% of them falling into the affordable housing segment. 

Dutch housing minister Hugo de Jonge has told the Volkskrant newspaper that foreign investors are welcome in the Netherlands and that new rent control rules will give them more security about the returns they will make on their investments here. 

Property developers and investors should start looking at the Netherlands’ housing crisis from the perspective of the people looking for homes, housing minister Hugo de Jonge told visitors to the Provada real estate trade fair earlier this month.