“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.”

AM’s Eleven Square project is helping transform the area around the Arena stadium south east of Amsterdam.

The new government has adopted the previous administration’s target of building 900,000 affordable homes in the Netherlands and is ready to act to speed up the development process which is crucial, he says, to ensure enough housing is built.

Yet while it is still vital to build affordable houses and work to boost sustainability, the social impact of area development is also becoming increasingly important.

For example, he says, loneliness is one of the most important issues facing both youngsters and the elderly. “So if you can help combat that through a development that helps people meet each other and make new friends, and keep an eye on each other, then you are really having a positive impact. On top of affordability and sustainability, this is what we really need as a society.”

Combining these factors, he says, is particularly an issue in area developments in the Netherlands, partly because the country is compact and space is at a premium, and partly because of tradition. And this, he says is where the concept of public private partnerships really comes in. “You can’t do it alone,” he says. “You need each other to make these sort of projects a success, especially when there are so many different interests involved.”

Combining all these different needs is one reason why it can take years to complete residential projects in the Netherlands, which is why Ronald supports the development of a different way of planning.

Rather than draw up a plan for housing, then for the roads, the electricity supply and dealing potential hindrances such as a nearby factory, he supports a parallel planning process, where everything is done at the same time.

“To do this you need the cooperation of everyone involved and to ensure everyone is committed to drawing up the plan within a short space of time,” he says. “Then, as private and public partners, you are really a team, working together, rather than reacting to someone else’s plan for this or that.”

The procedures for protesting about plans also need reforming he says, so that the interests of people who need a house are also taken into account. “When you live in a city, you need to understand that cities change. They evolve,” he says. “And that means keeping the history alive. So you should not knock down everything. You need to keep the old buildings and find new uses for them and then combine the old and new.”

It is equally important to make sure there is space for shops and services, and even for up and coming artists who, Ronald says, bring life to new urban developments and make it interesting to live somewhere.  “Everybody likes it when there is an old building incorporated into a new project,” he says. “It provides a link with the past. I recently moved and where I live now, an old industrial building has been converted into a brewery and café. And when I come home from work and I see everyone sitting outside, then I really feel like I am coming home.”