Just over one third of the housing in the Netherlands is currently rent controlled, compared with 37% ten years ago, national statistics agency CBS said on Thursday.

At the same time, rental properties which fall outside the social sector now account for 8% of the total housing stock, double the figure in 2012, the CBS said. Most of this has a rent of between €763 and €1,000 per month – the limit for what the government now calls affordable housing.

Housing minister Hugo de Jonge is planning to bring more housing under rent controls by redesigning the point system currently used to assess how much a property should cost and by extending regulation to all property worth less than €1,000 a month.

In particular, he plans to give more weight to energy efficiency measures, the minister told MPs last week.  De Jonge said at the time he expected 90% of rental property in the Netherlands would then fall under rent controls.

However, according to the CBS figures, just 3% of the total Dutch housing stock is currently rented out for more than €1,000 a month, or 7% of all rental housing.

The picture is different in the big cities. In Amsterdam, for example, 56% of housing is affordable rental and 14% has a rent of more than €1,000 per month.

Rental housing platform Pararius said earlier this month that rents in the non-rent controlled housing sector have risen sharply in the five big cities, and properties are being rented out more quickly.