Eindhoven still faces house shortages despite new constructions. The Eindhoven house hunters of, say 2026, can look forward to the accelerated construction of four thousand houses, which will be completed around that time. Alderman Torunoglu is happy with every step that decreases the housing shortage but realises that it is a ‘band-aid’ that is of little use to today’s house hunters.
The solution to meet the increasing housing demand
The alderman says that he is approached daily by frustrated people who are close to despair because they cannot find the house or room they are looking for. “Just now I received an e-mail. A boy who has given up and is now going to live in Belgium. Of course, that makes my heart cry. But tell me, what more can I do than what we are already doing to help these people? We make the rules more flexible where possible, we use state subsidies to speed up building. There is a limit to what you can do as a municipality.”
He also states that “The real solutions will have to come from The Hague. For example, the abolition of the landlord charge for housing associations (VVE). At the moment, that generates a lot of money for the treasury which is not invested in housing. Or more money for infrastructure. That could help us to build an additional ten thousand homes in the Fellenoord area.”
Increase the building production
However, Eindhoven itself could also do more to reduce the housing shortage. At least, that is what the Eindhoven housing associations say in a letter to the city council this week. Their message is clear: sell more land to us instead of to the free market and you will get what you want: more affordable housing in your city in the shorter term. Alderman Torunoglu does not exclude that this will happen in the future, but also thinks that the associations themselves could speed up the building process. “Production can really be higher and faster.”
Source: studio040.nl
Translated by: Anitha Sevugan
