The Hague city council may be poised to lose hundreds of millions of euros on a residential estate developed to lure rich Chinese people to the city, the Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday.

The problem has arisen because the justice ministry has decided to amend a scheme to encourage rich foreigners to take up residency by excluding investment in residential property as an option.

This had been one of the main selling points used to promote the Blossompark district.

Foreign investors are eligible for a residential permit if they invested up to €1.25m in the Netherlands and former junior justice minister Fred Teeven had cleared the Blossompark project for inclusion.

However, at the end of last year his successor Klaas Dijkhoff wrote to The Hague to say that property investments will not be considered because the main aim is to encourage investment in companies. The FD has a copy of the letter.

The rules for special residency were changed on July 1 to reflect this, the paper said.

According to justice ministry figures, just one rich foreigner had taken advantage of the scheme by the end of 2014. When the ruling was announced in 2013, Teeven said he expected 300 people would take advantage of the scheme.