Parts of Limburg, Gelderland, Twente, Noord-Brabant and the northern provinces have been earmarked for major new housing development, to meet future needs.

Ministers have identified six regions where new homes can be built, on top of the plans for 800,000 already in the pipeline, housing minister Hugo de Jonge said on Wednesday.

The six regions focus on the Brabant towns of Breda, Tilburg, and Den Bosch, the Apeldoorn-Deventer-Zutphen triangle, Twente, in Limburg close to intercity railway stations, the Groningen-Assen region and the Frisian cities.

As yet, there are no indications of how many new homes will need to be built past 2030 because much depends on migration. “But we should take into account another million homes from 2030,” De Jonge said.

The population is tipped to grow from 17.8 million now to 20.6 million by 2050, according to projections by the national statistics agency CBS.

Not everywhere is suitable for mass new development and the big four cities in the central urban built are reaching their limits, De Jonge said.

Planners must also take into account the shortage of drinking water in some areas, flooding and other climate-related issues, infrastructure and the wish to allocate more land to the defence ministry, he said in a briefing to MPs.

The minister says 180,000 new homes have been built over the past two years, and 800,000 must be built by 2030, of which 60% will be classed as “affordable”. Many of them will be built at 35 locations nationwide which have been earmarked for development in agreements signed between the minister and local authorities.