On 1 July, the Affordable Rent Act drafted by former Minister of Housing Hugo de Jonge, which aims in part to ensure fairer rents, went into effect. Experts warned that this could have unintended consequences: landlords would lose a significant portion of their income and might therefore want to sell their properties.
Questions sent to the housing teams in eight university cities by NRC last week showed that these predictions are coming true. Every city saw a “surprising number of reports of eviction notices from students and other shared tenants”, with Amsterdam, Groningen and Nijmegen seeing “a significant increase”. Most cases do indeed involve landlords looking to sell their properties. Often due to the Affordable Rent Act, but increasing property taxes and the equally new Permanent Lease Agreement Act, which means students are eligible for a permanent lease sooner, also play a part.
However, questions sent to Huurteam Zuid-Limburg by Observant suggest that this trend is not (yet) really visible in Maastricht. “There has been no increase, let alone a significant one, in the number of reports of landlords looking to sell. However, when we do receive reports, the reason for selling is more often that letting is no longer a viable source of income,” says project leader Robin Janssen. “It’s also worth noting that we are receiving more reports of maintenance and renovation by landlords.” Janssen believes this could suggest that landlords are trying to increase the ‘score’ assigned to housing. Under the new law, the rent is determined according to a point system, where a higher energy label, for example, could increase the rent permitted.
Not reassured
Local authorities have also not received any “official reports” that landlords are looking to sell student properties, policy adviser Suzanne Mestrom responded when asked. “There do appear to be more former student houses listed on real estate websites, but not enough to call it a trend. Moreover there are other reasons to sell a house now. The housing market is very attractive at the moment.”
Nonetheless, Maurice Evers, head of Maastricht Housing, is not reassured. “We’re hearing that it is an active consideration amongst private landlords in Maastricht. They might still choose to sell at a later date. It is a concern we continue to discuss with the council.” Bermon Pooters, board member for VVWM, the association of private landlords in Maastricht, expects that the pool of student housing available will shrink. “We have seen an enormous increase in the sale of flats which were let to a couple of students or PhD students. Unlike ‘traditional’ student housing, the points system can decrease the rental income there drastically, leading to landlords sometimes even having to make up the difference.”