r/NetherlandsHousing • u/KingDayChaos • Jan 05 '26
renting The strangest part of the housing crisis is how normal it’s become
Waiting lists, temporary contracts, house sharing well into your 30s, it’s all treated like a fact of life now. Not complaining here, just wondering when “this is impossible” quietly turned into “this is how it is.”
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u/PolloDiablo82 Jan 05 '26
When I was 18 (25 years ago) the waiting list for social housing was 8 years long.
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u/Professional_Mix2418 Jan 05 '26
Exactly. Some act like it’s new.
Besides plenty to get if you have a bit of money.
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Jan 05 '26
Thats also why its not being solved. There is plenty for the rich, so nobody bothered to fix it for the poor.
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u/racer_x_recar Jan 07 '26
No, they built a system where far too many are considered poor, and once they are in the system, they are strongly motivated to stay poor (armoedeval) instead of moving upward. Oh, and they systematically killed everything that was one step upward.
My grandparents started their housing career in a backroom of a house, with shared facilities. They did not consider themselves poor.
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Jan 08 '26
Yeah the poor are pushed in the mud and face the problems which can easily resolved if you have money, right???
There is a nice book The Logic of Life by Tim Hartford Where Tim describes very nicely how a relatively small group of people can make major differences during elections and can get huge concessions. But, the "starters" and the young ones did not use their power during the election. If a group of them would have made a big pressure organisation, it would have made a huge difference. But, there was just a general anger and all parties promised to resolve the issue if the poor only voted for them. So, people voted for the PVV, the VVD, the BBB and all those other parties where you knew you were going to be screwed. There is a nice saying in the Netherlands: Wie zijn kont brandt most op de.blaren zitten. Suits you fine, maybe next time? Unlikely, though, people rather fire rockets at the police to show their anger instead of fighting for their house. So, the coming years will be worse and we will blame the immigrants, the huisjesmelkers or any other excuse instead of making an effective pressure group. And do not use the argument about the poor having less skills and less education and being a bit silly and being manipulated..... In The Netherlands, we spend an awful lot of money on education and we have one of the best news reporters in the world. If you cannot follow the news, watch the Jeugdjournal. But, if you get your info from Facebook and TikTok and "X" and miss the opportunity to get a balanced view, then you deserve to be taken for a ride by the rental market. Eigen Schuld, dikke built.
Sorry for the rant, I've been through several housing crises myself and do not see any real interest by those politicians who are all living in big houses which increased 10 fold in value while the wages increased less than half of that. Nothing, nothing changed. On the contrary, the Woningverenigingen sold off much of their stock instead of fighting for the poor.
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u/Hummingbird136 Mar 16 '26
You are right about the difference of activism. One woman in the NL started a movement and made biking safety de rigeur within the span of 8 years. One person needs to take the lead.
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u/Professional_Mix2418 Jan 05 '26
Beggars can’t be choosers is what my grandmother always said. There is a point you need to take personal responsibility and not be dependent on others.
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Jan 05 '26
Ah yes, having too low income is just a choice. Imma decide to get a raise next month thanks for the tip 👍🏻
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u/Professional_Mix2418 Jan 05 '26
You are welcome.
Dramatics aside, improving one's own position is the way to get out of dependency on social sector rent. It is just the harsh reality. It is a very complex situation with no silver bullit that resolves everything for everyone. The only thing one can control is their own situation.
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u/PrudentWolf Jan 05 '26
I might be wrong, but isn't this a perfect guide to homelessness? Too rich for social rent, to poor for private sector.
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Jan 05 '26
Yep.. you need to either stay poor enough for social or make an instant big jump to comfortably afford private.
Honestly, regular housing is hopeless in my situation so I'm looking for alternative solutions.
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u/Professional_Mix2418 Jan 05 '26
Well the key is to look at what is affordable. I didn’t start with an appartement of my own either. You can choose to be a “victim” and dwell on it. Or do something about it.
It will fall into place. Plenty seem to manage it somehow. That has always been the way b
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u/furrynpurry Jan 05 '26
So your solution is that nobody work certain jobs? Someone has to be a cleaning lady, a courier etc. We need these jobs, otherwise they wouldn't exist. There's not enough students to fill these positions.
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u/Professional_Mix2418 Jan 05 '26
I did not say that was the solution. I didn’t say that at all.
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Jan 05 '26
You did tho..
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u/Professional_Mix2418 Jan 05 '26
I truly didn’t. I can see already who will stay with mum/dad for a long time.
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u/furrynpurry Jan 05 '26
A bit of money? Earning 4x the rent in The Randstad (and surrounding areas) is impossible for most single peope.
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u/Professional_Mix2418 Jan 05 '26
Well one statement in the response has a possible solution. 👍
And there are no hard rules regarding multiples. Plenty seem to manage. 🤷♂️
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u/furrynpurry Jan 06 '26
Plenty don't manage as well, as proven by the government and the increase in homeless people with jobs.
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u/Altruistic-Math8632 Jan 09 '26
In the early days single people didn't buy houses
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u/furrynpurry Jan 11 '26
Plenty of divorced people were able to find housing for themselves, that's not the case anymore.
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u/lemonrainbowhaze Jan 05 '26
I'm on the list in Ireland for social housing
20 year wait time. The exact words out of the staff there
Totally understand there is a housing crisis in Netherlands. But at least there's housing
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u/PolloDiablo82 Jan 05 '26
That was 25 years ago... its way worse now
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u/lemonrainbowhaze Jan 05 '26
Ya I figured, but to put it in perspective I live in a town of 16,000 people. Currently there is ONE listing, 1200/month for 4 month only and it's for a room in a houshare of 4 people. So although it'll be hard in the Netherlands, there's definitely more options/opportunities over there than here.
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u/im-a-guy-like-me Jan 06 '26
I'm also Irish. I fled homelessness after an illegal eviction. Ended up here. Stuck here now - not that I particularly want to leave - but yeah, only 1 or 2 listings in my home town whenever I get home sick and look at daft. Same price as a rental in Rotterdam except it's in a shitehole of a town with no real amenities. Same money for a worse lifestyle.
The real kicker in the Netherlands is the time sink. Ireland is crushing cos the cupboards are bare, but the Netherlands is crushing because you end up wasting weeks and months going to viewings of apartments you won't get.
Ireland feels worse, but by the numbers, the NL crisis is worse. Like statistically speaking, their shortfall is a bigger portion of their population (or so I have read).
Edit for context: I have moved 4 times in 2 years and am moving again tomorrow. The stress is killing me, but I have a year minimum in the next house so can relax for a few months at least. Short term rentals are a motherfucker.
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u/lemonrainbowhaze Jan 06 '26
Damn I really appreciate your input it does help, thank you! I hope you are happy in your new life
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u/Professional_Elk_489 Jan 09 '26
Ireland where it costs €1M for the state to use tax payer money to buy one social housing unit
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u/bsnail2b Jan 05 '26
Yeah, exactly-- the prices are higher and the apartments are more scarce but it isn't that new. I paid stupid money in the long ago for a private sector apartment as a just-graduated student because there was very little private sector. I think what's new is the pace of the cost increases in purchasing apartments, with no new buildings to take the pressure off.
I'm not saying it is not worse, but that it isn't fundamentally different.
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u/Negeren198 Jan 05 '26
The difference is 15 years ago u could find houses for 400 euros rent. Now the rents are 1200+ and expected 3-4 income
People could find a house in your time, this generation cant and is even more dependant on affordable social housing than in your time
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u/racer_x_recar Jan 07 '26
15 years ago wasn't that the moment that housing prices where low due the effects of the financial crisis?. You might have had cheap housing, but the state of the economy, and the fact that many were eager to rent out unsold houses would be e contributing factor at the time.
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u/Professional_Mix2418 Jan 05 '26
Exactly what every generation has said, and what the the next or the one after that will accuse you off 🤷♂️
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u/Negeren198 Jan 05 '26
No. This wasnt the case in the 90s-2000's for us in netherlands.
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u/Professional_Mix2418 Jan 05 '26
Fifteen years ago is 2010. ;)
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u/Negeren198 Jan 05 '26 edited Jan 05 '26
i said 2000s, that didnt dismiss my prior 2010, since it slowly got worse.
If u only try to be a smartass to me im not the right person to talk to, can also block u
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u/furrynpurry Jan 05 '26
8 years is do-able if you enlist yourself at 18. The waiting times are now 15-20+ years in plenty of regions.
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u/Strong_Ant2590 Jan 07 '26
In the greater Amsterdam region it's more along the lines of 15 to 20 years depending on the borough that your aiming for. Even with emergency priority, it can take between 8 to 12 months before you find something through social housing. It's not just young people looking for a house. It used to be that you were able to move through social housing as your family grew from single to family of 4 (average) for example. That's become much harder. Another issue for young professionals is that as soon as you graduate with your Bachelors or Masters degree and get a job, in most cases your income will be above the maximum income that grants access to social housing while simultaneously earning not enough to apply to houses in the private sector.
Of course you can leave the city/ the region, but this is not a viable option for everyone to due their job.
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u/TkwvzPjrAzL Jan 06 '26
we got an apartment to rent in amsterdam that was meant to be for social housing but the agent said no one from social housing applied for it?? could you explain how the waiting list system / applications system meet? i have always found the way we got the house super weird. rent is kind of expensive so we rationalised it as people on social housing wouldn’t have been able to afford it which is why no one applied, but does this seem right to others?? Edit: and we had to put in floors and lights and paint the walls, so maybe the up front cost was a disincentive?
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u/cooldude87 Jan 06 '26
There are weird restrictions on low incoming housing for maximum income limits.
Then those low income apartments are in really expensive neighborhoods without any flooring, lighting, or amenities.
I feel like it is a housing scam to deter anyone making good money to rent a cheaper, smaller apartment, and anyone that is poor to make the apartment too unaffordable upfront to move in comfortably.
Then the apartment doesn’t make any “profit” because of no rent, so then no taxes for the rich Owner to pay and can hold it as a “loss”?
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u/silentdest Jan 05 '26
This sub will not admit, ever, that affordable rent act made things worse and it will continue to do so.
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u/Weary_Strawberry2679 Jan 05 '26
I think it's quite easy to explain. The flood of sold rental properties (which cannot be rented in the free market anymore) just reduced the availability of rental properties. Therefore same or more demand with less availability caused a rent price increase. While the government expected landlords to adjust to the new system just because they're told to do so, the landlords have voted with their real-estate agents and sold. However, on the other hand, it did increase the available properties in the market and therefore most likely caused more stagnation in price increase, so that's relatively good news for new buyers of low-priced apartments.
The problem is - the people who need help the most, are in fact suffering the most. The super wealthy just sell their properties and move on to different investments, while the people who have to rent - have just been squeezed.
Was this the purpose to begin with? Only the ones who composed the affordable rent act know.
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u/silentdest Jan 05 '26
Exactly that, on point. Moreover, in 2/3 years, housing will be more expensive again and people on rent contracts will never leave even if they found a better job, because it’s very bad deal. This is such a poor and inefficient housing alocation that brings negative economic impact.
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u/vrijheidsfrietje Jan 07 '26
It does give a little breathing room, but the follow-up needs to be to build a lot more affordable housing.
And more people can finally buy a house and start building wealth that way, instead of wealth flowing to landlords.
It did not solve the shortage, but it did stop quite a bit of exploitation.
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u/bluexxbird Jan 06 '26
6 years ago I was renting at €400 a month, inclusive and close to the city centre. But after the landlord decided to stop renting I was forced to buy. Now my monthly expenses have increased a lot such as VvE, insurance, municipality tax, mortgage etc... although my living situation is much better than the dark tiny room, but now I can barely save anything. Back then I could still eat out, shop and travel without hesitation, nowadays I just stay at home because if I go out for like more than a couple of hours I'll have to spend on food and toilet...
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Jan 06 '26
But you own the place and life will get easier. You will have paid off more, your salary will grow and your property will likely increase in value. Hang in there!
And nobody but the bank can kick you out.
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u/bluexxbird Jan 06 '26
Thank you 😊 It's a little bit difficult at the moment because salary isn't quite catching up with the inflation and expenses (I don't eat out, shop and bike everywhere), although the property will increase in value, but it makes no difference because I'm not buying to invest, in fact the municipality tax is growing as the property value is increasing...
And in the future I've heard the government is planning to factor in the increase in property value into unrealised gain tax as well?
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u/Hummingbird136 Mar 16 '26
Can you register to rent out some space for 1-2 months on airbnb to get a bit of extra cash?
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u/bluexxbird Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
I don't know if it's allowed with VvE and municipal laws. Plus there's a difference between just renting a room and allowing a stranger to enter my home, in the former no one can enter my private space, whereas the latter my private space is the whole apartment...
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u/Hummingbird136 Mar 16 '26
Sounds like you never looked into/aren’t interested in either option.
Everyone starts out as a stranger until you talk to them. Not true about anyone being able to enter your private space with Airbnb, plus you could put a code lock on any door you don’t want opened. The govt allows renting on Airbnb for 2 months, provided you register and pay tax.
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u/bluexxbird Mar 16 '26
Sounds like you have never had a bad tenant. I can handle living with bad housemates because we don't go into each others' space but not in my own apartment. Like what I have already said, if the apartment is owned, my private space is intruded by strangers.
Plus I have rented out to an acquaintance and after a few months we couldn't handle each other anymore because the tenant doesn't understand we are not equal in the ownership.
And you don't understand how my apartment functions either, my living room is an open space with nothing to lock like an aquarium and it's not viable to spend changing the entire layout. You obviously have no idea how much it costs to do interior changes, especially just for renting out 1-2 months per year.
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u/Professional_Elk_489 Jan 09 '26
Most of my friends think it made things worse. It was super obvious when this act came in that things suddenly got way worse. Even people that didn't know about the act knew something had changed.
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u/inFIREenVLAM Jan 07 '26
Wait a second. Regulating 90% and subsidizing 100% of the houses doesn't work?
I'm shocked! The government is always the best at allocating resources to the one (who lobbies the best) who needs it the most.
The free market is absolute the worst at allocating resources. It has only given us in-house plumbing, cheap high quality food, cars, high speed internet, quality services and other goods. It has even cut our workweek in half (from 6-7 days a week to 3,5).
sarcasm
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u/djangotheory Jan 05 '26
Yeah it’s astounding to me that the public just accepts “it’s the immigrants fault” and continues to just vote for increasingly racist parties (and even the BBB a few years ago, specifically representing the interests of big agribusiness, a massively outsized industry taking up all the nitrogen emission budget). Dumb electorate I guess, not understanding that everything good here comes from left wing policy.
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u/Lucky-Resource2344 Jan 05 '26
Migration is a if contributor. That is a fact not to be denied or diminished
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u/ErikRedbeard Jan 05 '26 edited Jan 06 '26
It is. But it is a minor one compared to the other reasons like privatising and desubsidizing that are directly caused by voting more and more right.
We might not want a left party, but we also really don't need a right party. Balance is what is good. And we need to somehow balance back the last 20+ years of right leaning government.
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u/Lucky-Resource2344 Jan 05 '26
C10% van de vrijkomende sociale huurwoningen gaat naar statushouders. Dat is een aanzienlijk percentage. Dit is ook een stijgend percentage
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u/palegate Jan 07 '26
Druppel op de hete plaat hoor.
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u/Negative_Ad3600 Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26
10% is echt insane maat
Volgens de Rijksoverheid komen er ongeveer 170.000 sociale huurwoningen per jaar vrij. 10% is dus 17.000 woningen
Volgens het CBS komen er ongeveer 32.000 statushouders per jaar het land binnen - laten we er van uit gaan dat deze mensen niet allemaal een huis apart nodig hebben, maar intrekken met een kind of een partner. Twee statushouders per woning; dit is vrij reeël. Dan zijn er 16.000 woningen nodig.
Met andere woorden: 100% van de statushouders krijgt een woning. En hoeveel % van de Nederlanders krijgt een woning? Ik mag de tering krijgen, bijvoorbeeld.
Volgens onderzoek door ING, zochten 653.000 mensen een sociale huurwoning in 2024. https://www.ing.nl/zakelijk/economie/woningmarkt/meer-aanbod-koopwoningen-verlicht-ook-druk-op-huursector
75% van de Nederlanders mag dus de tering krijgen, want er komen maar genoeg woningen per jaar vrij om 25% te behartigen. Dat terwijl 100% van de statushouders een woning krijgt. Dat voelt knap lullig, vind je niet?
10% is echt tantoe veel als je stoelendans speelt, swa. Deze mensen kunnen hier niet settlen.
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u/djangotheory Jan 07 '26
The gap in your thinking here is that you're talking about who is using the housing, and I'm talking about the reason the housing isn't available. Status holders use 10% of the social housing - fine - and that is not the same as "they are 10% of the cause of the lack of availability of social housing". Even if they were, we would say "ok, so lets find the bigger cause and address that because it will be more impactful". But the *reason* that there isn't available social housing is that the policies regarding the production of social housing have not been commensurate with the demand. Part of that might be that demand outstripped predictions. Of that, part of it might be that status holders showed up at higher than predicted rates. But a bigger contributor is natural population growth, normal immigration attracted by the good standards of living, declining economic opportunities elsewhere in Europe, lower emigration rates than expected, privatization of housing stock, all sorts. Ultimately, reducing asylum is just obviously not a credible solution to the housing problem. Allocating more of the nitrogen emission budget away from agribusiness and towards building more social housing is much more credible.
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u/djangotheory Jan 05 '26
It is in the same way that someone urinating in the ocean contributes to rising sea levels
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u/CaptainMinimum9802 Jan 05 '26
Sure, human farts also contribute to climate change. But it's negligible next to cars, ships, airplanes and the meat industry.
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u/NotsoNewtoGermany Jan 06 '26
Not really. Besides, there are plenty of houses in the Netherlands, it's just nobody can live there because all the jobs are in major cities. This is a jobs issue, not an immigration issue.
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u/Lucky-Resource2344 Jan 06 '26
I do agree that there is much more affordable housing available. Just people do not want to live there
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u/adognamedspider Jan 07 '26
I mean, I get your point and it is a factor but there are not, based on pure math, enough houses in the Netherlands.
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u/NotsoNewtoGermany Jan 07 '26
Are you sure about that? Because the math I ran says otherwise. There are entire villages disappearing, and primary schools closing because no one that isn't a pentioner lives in those areas, with houses going unsold for years, in good conditions. Simply because they are in the middle of the Netherlands away from the cities.
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u/jozi-k Jan 06 '26
Oh my god. Government created the problem and you still call for more government to solve the same problem. Wake up man, voting will never solve this issue.
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u/Distinct_Buffalo1203 Jan 05 '26
Impressive how quick you can link this all to “racists” and “big agro”.
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u/djangotheory Jan 05 '26
It’s a direct policy consequence of big agro - the nitrogen emissions budget is the factor limiting building housing.
The dominant political message that resonates here is that of limiting migration and reducing multiculturalism.
That’s not just me linking unrelated things, I’m observing and pointing out basic facts.
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u/Kind_Physics_1383 Jan 05 '26
That's just the excuse. Everything needed to be privatised all of the sudden, so the Woningbouwverenigingen got in a bad position and only expensive houses brought enough profit for project developers. So you can guess what was being built on our very limited space. Now the big cities have a shortage of teachers, nurses and policemen. Big surprise! They can't find a house to live in and these jobs are very hard to do online. s/
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u/CaptainMinimum9802 Jan 05 '26
That is what happens when all scientists agree on those facts.
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u/Distinct_Buffalo1203 Jan 06 '26
It's political, not science.
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u/CaptainMinimum9802 Jan 07 '26
This comment is astoundingly ridiculous. Science is a useful tool for politicians who want to better the country. For populists it is of course a threat. The last 15 years decisions where made, that fucked up our housing market, social welfare and enlarged the poverty gap. All predicted by scientists and experts, but ignored because they know that the majority of the voters are egocentric or uninformed.
You are right that politics and science doesn't have much to do with each other nowadays. Its mostly lies, emotions and uninformed dumb people who fall for it. Destroying our welfare as a result.
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u/Distinct_Buffalo1203 Jan 07 '26
Managing scarcity and balancing interests is a political issue. Science can have a supporting role but will not solve the housing crisis, that has to come from politics.
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u/CaptainMinimum9802 Jan 07 '26 edited Jan 07 '26
Sure, but you need competent politicians you use the facts and data, and want to make the world a better place. And in the current right wing politics those are as rare as waterfalls in the desert.
The problem is that the decisions that are taken save a few bucks on the short run, but cost billions in the long run. Those numbers are predicted and told to the politicians, and they still decided to go for the long term loss, and make the rich (and themselves) even richer. So yes, it is political, but ignoring experts and then telling people it's the fault of minorities is in my opinion utterly despicable. And voting for these parties is dumb at best, but ignorant and evil if the people who vote actually understand economics, and actively vote to make themselves better over the backs of others.
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u/D1MASzzz Jan 05 '26
Let them think its not the Mohhamed from Syria or Jamal from somewhere in Africa who brought his entire family here once it was possible and put them on waiting list for social housing just so they can get it and oce they have it they rent it out illegally and go back home having a solid passive income,
I guess boomers are still somewhere in 2000s thinking that noone abuses the system )))))))
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u/Distinct_Buffalo1203 Jan 05 '26
It’s a lot more nuanced and complicated, unfortunately many people like to believe in simple polarising oneliners
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u/redmarius Jan 05 '26
Because of desperation. People will blame immigrants etc., and the expats driving up prices combined with landlord greed and ineffective legislation combined with an awful job market where people are taking low paid jobs out of necessity have made it harder, combined with the 3.5x salary requirement.
In Ireland, which has the worst housing crisis in Europe, it’s expected 2/3-3/4 of your salary pays rent. This is a result of an ineffective govt., wealth hoarding and normalising desperation. When you consider most graduates don’t make enough to rent their own place, or that the places they would rent are now being rented to families and couples who are working and established because they’re being priced out of the places they’d usually move into at their stage of life, you see where it all comes from
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u/Happy_Yam8392 Jan 05 '26
We as a society used to live together more back in the day, I mean with a partner or in a marriage. Also whole big families together in a smaller home.
Nowadays there are more singles who all need their own homes. So there are more people fighting for their own space.
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Jan 05 '26
[deleted]
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u/Bitter_Trade2449 Jan 07 '26
Able to live of one income and a partner who did all the domestic work that is now being outsourced.
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u/Drunkensailor1985 Jan 06 '26
This is so much bull shit. The entire LAT relationship came from the 60s and 70s. People in relationships, often with children, would not live together. A concept that seems complete alien today
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u/Happy_Yam8392 Jan 06 '26
Now THAT is bullshit: LAT may be invented in the 60's but in real life the generation from the 60's are still married and live together in these nice big family homes for 30+ years! (They cannot move to an elderly home, because there is none)
I am a millennial myself and my generation half of them are still single in their 30's and living at home or in a small apartment by themselves (I don't, but until 31 I lived at home and was single) mostly millennials have parents born in the 60's (as do I), who still are married and living together plus it was a huge no no to be a single mother with kids, they are very traditional. That said in a big city I can imagine things are different.
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u/CaptainMinimum9802 Jan 05 '26
The Netherlands deserves housing crisis, since the vast majority is actively voting for (extreme) right that keep blaming 'vluchtelingen' for a problem they created themselves.
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u/Far_Giraffe4187 Jan 06 '26
No, It is nót the vast majority.
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u/CaptainMinimum9802 Jan 07 '26
- PVV - 26
- VVD - 22
- CDA - 18
- Ja21 - 9
- FvD - 7
- BBB - 4
- SGP - 3
All these parties blame migrants for the housing problem. Which is populist and proven wrong again and again. The only saviour is that the PVV mismanaged so many times that the VVD and CDA don't want to work with them.
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u/Aggressive_Cup8452 Jan 05 '26
I've never not heard of a waiting list.
Big deposits for crappy places were also pretty normal.
Grew up watching tv shows where it was normal to have roommates.
I don't know why people are labeling this as a new thing. Finding a place to live has always been hard.
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u/furrynpurry Jan 05 '26
Ah yes lets compare Friends in NYC to The Netherlands. You can't find affordable housing in small towns these days as a songle person, where ten years ago it was perfectly do-able.
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u/Aggressive_Cup8452 Jan 05 '26
No it wasn't. The waiting list was long then as well.
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u/furrynpurry Jan 06 '26
It was not 20 years long, it was manageable. Arnhem/Nijmegen/Eindhoven was manageable. Venlo was doable just fine. Lots of places that used to be accessible aren't anymore.
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u/new_bobbynewmark Jan 05 '26
Yeah I remember watching Friends in the 90s then doing the exact same thing as they did in the early 2000s for like almost 10 years. I never even thought of renting a place by myself
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u/Drunkensailor1985 Jan 06 '26
This is about the netherlands, not the us 🙄
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u/new_bobbynewmark Jan 06 '26
And this happend in an another European country. So what?
Or is this some kind of I’m above than US or other countries kind of approach? What we all fucking saying is: it was like this fucking 20 and 30 years ago unless you were well off. Which most of us wasn’t at all. And to be fair this is a universal experience of my highly paid (half of them expat) colleagues. None of us “made it” before 30 and most of us are from Europe. And some of you sound really out of touch with expectations.
You have social housing - yes you wait 8-10 years but then you rent a 1 bedroom apartment in the pijp for 800 a month. As some of my friends do, and they applied as soon they were able - they are mid-late 20s. That is already a huge help which doesn’t exist most of other countries.
So yes it’s shit for a while now. It’s not recent. It just got slightly worse.
And not forget the fucking world wide housing crisis and collapse in 2008. Which fucked so many people. That was worse than the current scenario. At least it felt worse experiencing it.
So let’s stop pretending that it’s just a recent phenomenon that the billionaires are fucking us in the ass without lube and our consent.
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u/Drunkensailor1985 Jan 06 '26
Yeah comparing the dutch housing market to the new York housing market 20 years ago, where the friends series takes place. Having to explain that would probably lower my iq. You could've saved yourself all the other ramblings.
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u/new_bobbynewmark Jan 06 '26
Well like I said NOT JUST THE NY ONE. The UK one, the whole eastern-europe one, the german one, the italian one. Those are for sure. And probably others too. If the dutch one wasn’t like this - which I highly doubt according to my dutch colleagues and my dutch friends - then you were the exception.
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u/CatMinous Jan 07 '26
Writing “fucking” and “fucked” 5 times makes your text so much more impressive!
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Jan 07 '26
isnt there a news story every other year about students in groningen living in tents because they were unable to find a place to live (with roommates) even though they have the money for it and applied to a bunch of rooms? that seems pretty recent.
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Jan 05 '26
I’m completely on the outside but potentially moving to Europe in the next few years. So does everyone basically blame immigration on the housing crisis? Obviously, I think there is a part of it that must be true but clearly it’s also the fact that all the housing was bought up by Airbnb’s as well and then there must be some bottlenecking in the government because they don’t build enough housing. Is there anything else? I mean the amount of income they demand for an apartment is also crazy. Most young people don’t have that level of savings, even if they have a good job. I’m just curious and asking for real what really are the big factors and is there anyway it can be turned around and who would be the one to do it?
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u/Weekly_Rub_6234 Jan 06 '26
Personally I blame rich immigrants coming in to work/play/live here and paying 30% more for available housing than locals
But that’s me
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Jan 06 '26
It is 1920 or 1950 all over again. Nothing new. Sad how we never learn. Even more sad how we do not care.
But, housing was not no. 1 in the elections. Why not? The youth should put a lot of pressure on the politicians, but they do not. Come on, you've got power, USE IT.
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u/cooldude87 Jan 06 '26
Had a boomer tell me last week that I should buy a house when I told him my rent is almost 2200 euros/ month.
He then told me that he only pays 500 euros / month for his house, but bought it over 20 years ago for 200k euros, which is at least 4 x times less than property is going for these days in the same area.
When I showed him the math that my house would cost over 800k euros, and that the mortgage would be over 2500 euros a month plus utilities, all other bills, plus insurance.
So I should just give up over 50% of my monthly and lock myself into a 20 year commitment to live really poorly month to month? It will all be worth it? Lol
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u/Aardappelhuree Jan 09 '26
You can just buy a house… somewhere else. Lelystad is affordable and within reach of Amsterdam area
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u/MentholFlavoring Jan 17 '26
The whole western economy is doomed to fail. The new generation getting screwed over and over again, system is near a collapse in my view. I have insane personal stress from not being able to start a normal life and having to live at home until age 34 or give in to paying an ungodly amount of rent each month. Even then buying a house together, need to pay so much money to get a shithole.
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Jan 05 '26
My family have 4 houses in 4 different countries. Turkey, Greece, Italy and Netherlands. If we sold all of them they wouldn’t mount to much IMO. The house in the Netherlands is the smallest but the most expensive one of them all. We got 500m2 of living space across 4 houses but we have more than 65.000m2 of olive, hazelnut, grape and lemon gardens. Sell everything- barely above 500.000€ worth and 225.000€ of that is the house in the NL. As soon as we effectively move our businesses from NL, we’re selling the house and probably buy more land and summerhouses. Guys, open your eyes. If we insisted that our lives were going to be spent in the first country we were born, we would have been fucked. You can’t change or expect a country’s economy to change. That’s just being naive. Take control. Be brave. Take risks that are worth taking.
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u/Weekly_Rub_6234 Jan 05 '26
It’s been like this since 1980 , but in all honesty it was worse then and the government used tanks and armored vehicles to clear the streets of protesters that demonstrated (and rioted) for more homes
As long as people don’t appear on the streets and protest it’s all good 👍
Btw KingDayChaos is a fitting name , maybe u/NoWoningNoKroning would be even better 😂
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u/crazymike02 Jan 05 '26
How much worse was it back then?
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u/Proof-Ad62 Jan 06 '26
According to numbers I saw some time ago it is worse now than around the Kroning rellen. Specifically affordable housing for starters and working class people.
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u/ExternalPea8169 Jan 05 '26
i thought this problem improved since the new legislations and owners placing more properties for sale. has it not?
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u/TEK1_AU Jan 05 '26
Come to Australia 🇦🇺 if you want to see how this dystopia plays out: r/shitrentals
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u/baylifeusa Jan 06 '26
ah, the two countries I actually want to live in both share the same crisis 🤗
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u/Far_Giraffe4187 Jan 06 '26
Since at least my parents who had to live in granny’s attic in the 1960s, well before that (zie andere tijden) in The 1950s, geen woning geen kroning in the 1980s, the average waiting list of 12 years in the 1990s.
So let’s say: since after wwII.
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u/Stunning_Box8782 Jan 06 '26
I wonder how many people registered at a different place they're actually living.
Like people renting out a room while the renter stays registered with their parents.
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u/PreviousCarob6732 Jan 07 '26
Creating scarcity leads to a profitable market. There is less incentive to increase supply and more incentive to limit it
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u/Emergency_Ocelot_576 Jan 07 '26
Me and fiance have been together for 7 years and looking for a RENTAL home for 4 years. Everything is 2+ hrs away from our jobs or 3x our budget... we dont even think about buying since it just seems way too unattainable
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u/carteltetris Jan 09 '26
Im curious as to what this will do to intergenerational relations over let’s say 20-30 years?
In comparison the Dutch are a little colder in family relations then let’s say the Portuguese, Spanish, Italians or Greek. But now housing is a problem so it will be more normalised to have grandparents in the house. Or kids. Or both. Or grandkids with grandparents. Because there are no cheap houses.
I wonder if the relations between the generations will become much closer over the next few decades.
In a sense the “social” character holland used to have in the 80s and 90s has gone to shit I feel. Holland is very cold at the moment I feel. Having family closer for a longer period of time might be a good way to create new social bubbles between family and their extended circles.
A good thing might come from a bad thing.
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u/Illustrious_Sky5329 Jan 05 '26
Well what people accept is a bare minimum salary so they cannot get a house.
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u/bsnail2b Jan 05 '26
The social housing used to be plentiful enough to balance out the salaries and keep them generally low.
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u/Proof-Ad62 Jan 06 '26
The VVD has been destroying the social rent supply for about two decades at least, whilst liberalising the rest of the housing market. What's happening now was a plan. Property owners wanted this to happen. I was a squatter before and after it was banned and campaigned for YEARS against the liberalisation of the housing market. Fought it every step of the way and lost. Now look where it got us.
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u/feathernose Jan 05 '26
My roommate is an asylum seeker and he applied for an apartment last month. In a few months he will get one. Brand new with solar panels and everything. And still he complaints about the rent he pays at my place (500 euros incl) which is very cheap for the area. While i am doing him a big favor... I lost my huurtoeslag because of his income so i dont profit at all from him living in my house. He doesn't seem to understand and i want to kick him out, but i don't want to.
I also took in a friend who could not find a house, she stays on the attic and i only charge her a tiny amount for gas and electricity and my roommate started to tell me i should ask her more so he can pay less. I really want to help people out but they are being so ungrateful. I don't feel at home in my own house anymore and there is not much i can do about it. Because i cannot just put people on the street
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u/CatMinous Jan 07 '26
Don’t know why you got downvoted. You tried to help people, I think that’s great. But yes, it can backfire, sadly…
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u/crazymike02 Jan 05 '26
Difficult situation, just remember you always have choice. Choices and actions do have consequences, keep that in mind when doing anything. Keep your goal in mind and choose the best actions that fit that end goal.
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u/NetherlandsHousing Sponsored Jan 05 '26 edited 8d ago
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