Housing corporations, local councils, investors, and tenants organisations have urged the government to come up with a raft of new measures and cash to stimulate the construction of new homes. 

In particular, the government needs to invest between €3 billion and €5 billion a year to help finance new developments and meet targets on affordable and social housing. But ministers must also tackle capacity problems on the electricity grid and the shortage of drinking water supplies, the organisations say. 

“We need to combine the strengths of the private sector, housing corporations and government and stop waiting for each other to act,” said Martin van Rijn, chairman of housing corporation association Aedes.

There is a current shortage of some 400,000 homes in the Netherlands, and the caretaker government has a target of building 100,000 more every year. But that is far from being realised, which means the shortage of housing is likely to increase.  

The organisations behind the appeal say they are already taking some steps themselves to speed up the processes. Local authorities, for example, are willing to make the rules for new developments more uniform, and the construction sector is focusing on more prefabricated components. This, they say, will make it cheaper and less complex to complete projects. 

But, the groups argue, key to the success of all this is “clear, stable and predictable” government policy. Builders and developers in particular say they struggle to deal with constant changes in strategy when they are working on long term projects. 

They also want the government to take action to tackle endless protests about building projects, particularly those with no hope of succeeding. In particular, the interests of people who are looking for a home should be given more weight, the organisations say.

The plans have been signed by homeowners association VEH, tenants organisation Woonbond, estate agents, the construction sector association Bouwend Nederland, housing corporations, local and provincial authority organisations plus the big investors and developers organisations.