Fewer Building Permits Issued For New Houses Again

Fewer building permits were granted for the fourth quarter in a row. More than 63,000 new homes were delivered throughout 2022, more than 16 percent less than the year before. This is evident from figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

The decrease in the number of building permits is at odds with the plans of Minister for Housing and Spatial Planning Hugo de Jonge, who, together with the cabinet, has set itself the goal of building at least 900,000 homes by 2030. 100,000 houses must be delivered per year. That is why the cabinet is tightening the reins. From now on, De Jonge wants to determine centrally where which type of houses will be built. Municipalities and provinces will receive instructions for this.

At least two-thirds of new-build homes must soon be ‘affordable’: 40 percent of new-builds must be in the middle segment, an ‘affordable’ owner-occupied home will sell for a maximum of 355,000 euros. In addition, in municipalities that have too few social rental homes in stock, 30 percent of new construction will soon be social rental homes.

The national government determines what is built and where. Suppose, for example, that a municipality does not want to build in a neighboring meadow, just outside the village centre. Or that the province does not want that. In such a case, the minister can still say: we are going to allow it anyway. That will all be legally binding, in other words: the national government will decide.

First of all, more homes are needed, De Jonge admits. And the law still has a long way to go: the House of Representatives and the Senate still have to consider it. De Jonge takes into account that implementation will not become a fact before 1 January 2024, perhaps even a year later.