Ensuring that residential production gets going again. How? Boelhouwer has ‘a whole pile of measures for this’, which not only involve orderly planning, but also relate to decision-making. ‘The starting point should be: “We’re going to build there in four years”, and that’s what we’re going to focus on.’ Any bottlenecks will then be eliminated during the process. Boelhouwer points out that there are more and more so-called housing factories that quickly produce ready-made homes. ‘Construction can really do more than they are doing now.’
‘We have implemented unprecedented fiscal measures. Van Rij has done a lot of harm’
More efficient use of current housing stock
A second intervention is a more efficient use of the existing housing stock by removing all the obstacles we have raised. “You can start that tomorrow.” Boelhouwer, for example, is referring to municipal regulations that prohibit house division, encouraging so-called ‘friend contracts’ and making it financially attractive for people to live together. A little more government, a little less rigid application of rules.
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But it is not only the government that must adopt a different approach, citizens with all their objections are also to blame for the stagnation of housing construction. ‘Sand is being thrown everywhere in the machine.’ Boelhouwer points to several large housing construction sites that have been waiting for a ruling at the Council of State for almost two years. ‘It is unprecedented that we allow this to happen. You can really speed up there.’ Finally, a third option is to build temporary homes, and here again the aforementioned housing factories can offer a solution.
Crisis with many parents
The current housing crisis affects many parents. According to Boelhouwer, it is important to respond counter-cyclically with housing construction. ‘If things are going well, don’t add fuel to the fire, and if things are going badly, don’t put on the handbrake. We did. That’s what we’re doing again now, by the way.’ What also plays a role is that no consistent long-term policy is being pursued. ‘You can’t turn 180 degrees every few years.’ Boelhouwer is referring to Stef Blok, former Minister of Housing, who ‘throws everything over the fence’ at the market, which is now completely turning around.
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Even more sand in the construction machine: the population grew much faster than we thought. ‘Especially from 2015 onwards we see enormous population growth that we have not taken into account.’ Labor migration in particular is a factor in this. And all this against the background of a sharp decline in housing production. ‘Much fewer homes, a population that is growing much faster. You don’t have to study math for that. That simply results in a significant deficit.’
Fiscal evil
An overarching, or underlying, complication is that housing construction is not an isolated discipline, but is strongly linked to other policy areas. ‘What has been a major issue in the last few years is the tax treatments, especially for landlords, corporations and the private sector. We have implemented unprecedented fiscal measures.”
Boelhouwer specifically mentions State Secretary Marnix van Rij, who has ‘done an enormous amount of harm’, such as having housing associations pay corporate tax. “That is quite unique in Europe,” says Boelhouwer, who calls it very strange that we tax corporations so heavily. Or that 10.4 percent transfer tax must be charged in the private sector and an annual yield tax of 6 percent. “These are unprecedentedly bad measures that have been taken.”
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Boelhouwer notes that left and right are throwing mud at each other on this dossier, while both the government and the market have failed. ‘The government has taken some very bad measures and has not acted adequately. Blok simply threw it over the fence to the regions and to market parties, but then we literally gagged those market parties. We barely gave them any space. In fact, we have started to tax them very heavily. Then you freeze the entire system.’
