Woonbedrijf does not increase the rents of its social housing again. The housing corporation leaves rental rates unchanged just as in 2015. Only the houses outside the social sector, will face an increase of 0.3 procent.
Director Paul Tholenaars says Woonbedrijf says to meet its tenants’ needs: “We notice that a lot of tenants are not going to improve financially this year.” The corporation wants its properties to remain affordable and available to the households with the lowest incomes. Last year Woonbedrijf raised rents by 0.6 percent due to an inflation correction.
The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) published a report on the affordability of rental housing today. The agency is concerned about the increase in the number of young adults with a payment risk. This means that they can hardly pay the rent charges and the basic livelihood.
PBL sees that half of young adults still have a payment risk after three years. Additionally, this group has a greater chance than older people to be among the skewed ratio of inhabitants of cheap houses. The assessment agency finds it unwise to assign an expensive rental property to young adults on the basis of their potentially rapidly increasing income.
It is true that all housing corporations assign appropriately since January 2016. This is part of the new Housing Act and prevents people to get into financial problems stemming from too high a rent.
As such, the social housing homes that qualify for housing benefits, will not get a rent increase. The 776 houses of Woonbedrijf that are above that limit, will get a rent increase. It involves an inflation correction of 0.3 percent.
Source: Studio040
Translator: Cyril C
