Amsterdam has drawn up plans to ban the rental of new-build homes on city land, as part of a spate of policies to combat spiralling house prices, housing shortages and over-saturation of tourism.
The plan from its housing chief states: “Investors are buying Amsterdam homes more and more frequently, intending to rent them out. This means that ‘normal’ house-buyers have less of a chance in the housing market, and Amsterdam is not happy with this.”
The move comes at time of increasing alarm in the Dutch city and with the national government about three years of runaway house prices, a shortage of affordable homes and ever-growing tourism that some local residents and businesses say is destroying Amsterdam.
An estimated one in five homes in the city is sold to investors, and last year about 10,000 foreign nationals moved to Amsterdam from January to the end of November, the same number of Dutch nationals left, while there was a natural increase of 5,000 residents.
In the past week, the city housing chief, Laurens Ivens, announced policies to enforce maximum prices for newbuild owner-occupied homes for middle incomes, and a crackdown on the subletting of social houses, which is banned.
The Airbnb-style short lets, which account for 12% of overnight tourist stays in the city are also being tackled: the Dutch home affairs minister, Kajsa Ollengren, announced plans for a national registration scheme and to make renting out a home via holiday rental platforms for more than annual maximum of days – in Amsterdam it is 30 – a financial crime with tough penalties. There
“We don’t think we have the golden bullet but the city of Amsterdam does have a lot of different measures to improve the liveability of the city for our residents,” said a city spokeswoman. “The first point of a city is to live in, and the second is to visit.”
Via The Guardian
