Residential housing developers and investors are increasingly delaying or pulling out of projects and thousands of homes at the planning stage are affected, according to construction sector lobby group WoningBouwersNL.

Figures drawn up by real estate advisory group Capital Value show that some 25,000 properties at the planning stage are either being delayed or cancelled – around a third of the new homes realised in the average year.

The government has a target of 100,000 homes a year to meet the shortage of affordable accommodation.

Increases in mortgage rates, now heading for 4%, and soaring inflation have reduced the scope of many people to buy a new home, the lobby group is quoted as saying in the AD.

‘This is putting developers in a difficult position because they have to build cheaper homes for a market with less capital, while their costs and uncertainties are increasing,’ the report said.

Two thirds of all new properties must meet the government’s definition of ‘affordable’ homes.

Permits

The number of new permits for housing developments issued in the first six months of this year fell by 18%. ‘This is a disaster for people who are looking for a home because the shortage is only increasing,’ WoningBouwersNL said.

In August, researchers at Delft University said the downturn in building new owner occupier properties first recorded at the end of last year is continuing.

In the first quarter of this year, just 4,500 new owner occupier homes were completed and 5,500 were bought – back at the level of the 2013 financial crisis, the university said.

In July Dutch real estate investors wrote to housing minister Hugo de Jonge warning that new home construction projects will slow drastically if he presses ahead with plans to regulate rents for up to 90% of the country’s residential property.

Without change, just 50,000 new homes will be built every year, rather than the 100,000 that the government is counting on, lobby group Neprom told the minister in a briefing.