Photo: ANP
Bouwend Nederland does not find it surprising that the number of new-build homes sold halved in the second quarter of this year. Since the fourth quarter of 2021, the construction sector has seen a decline in the number of building permits issued, which has meant that less construction has been taking place for a long time.
“We can only solve the increasing housing shortage if we add new homes and also ensure that we stimulate circulation,” says Bouwend Nederland. But the construction sector says it is being hampered in achieving this ambition, including by the lack of a solution to the nitrogen problem, a shortage of construction locations and additional requirements that municipalities impose on new construction.
According to Bouwend Nederland, the problems are exacerbated by government policy, “despite the good ambitions of Minister De Jonge”. Municipalities should also take more responsibility. “The Affordable Rent and Reinforcing Management of Public Housing laws pay too little attention to flow and lack instruments that shorten objection procedures. Stop focusing on inner-city construction, but build an additional street in every municipality.”
Steps are being taken, the interest group emphasizes, such as the so-called start construction impulse, which allows construction projects that are in danger of coming to a standstill to continue. There is a lot of interest in this, as an initial inventory showed last month.
Moreover, adding affordable new-build homes is not the only way to solve affordability problems in the housing market, says Bouwend Nederland. The vast majority of starters buy their first home in the existing housing stock. “New construction must be built in all segments, so that flow in the housing market is stimulated.” The construction of new homes can set in motion a relocation chain that creates space in the existing stock, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) already calculated two years ago.
In the night from Wednesday to Thursday, CBS published new figures on the sale of new-build homes, which showed that sales in the second quarter had more than halved compared to last year. In April, May and June, 3,300 new-build homes were sold, which is 56.2 percent less than in the same months last year. In addition to a decline in the number of building permits, high mortgage interest rates, a shortage of building locations and high construction and land costs also play a role.