Almost 55,000 permits for new homes were handed out last year, down 15% on 2022 and a further sign of the current problems facing the housing market, national statistics agency CBS said on Thursday.

In particular, the number of permits for owner-occupier housing fell by 23% to their lowest level for 10 years. Rental property permits fell by 6% to 28,400.

2023 was the second year in a row that the number of issued permits fell sharply and the last time so few licences were granted was in 2016. But between 2000 and 2008, some 80,000 permits for new homes were handed out every year.

The CBS estimates it takes two years on average from licencing to completion. Last month housing minister Hugo de Jonge admitted there would be a dip in production in 2025 and 2026.

In total, 73,000 new homes were completed last year, excluding conversions of existing property.

Meanwhile, the housing corporation watchdog AW has warned that social housing providers will not meet their target of providing 300,000 new rent-controlled properties over the next six years.

In total, the government has a target of creating 981,000 new homes by 2030.

It is unrealistic to think the corporations will produce more than 30,000 homes this year, the AW said. In 2022, for example, once sales and demolitions were taken into account, the total social housing stock rose by just 4,800 homes.

The shortage of building land, bureaucracy and high prices charged by local authorities are among the main issues which need to be solved to get construction up to speed, Martin van Rijn, chairman of housing corporation umbrella group Aedes, told the Volkskrant.