Cabinet wants more temporary rental contracts for students

Landlords should be allowed to give students a temporary contract, the cabinet believes. Rents for homes in city centres may also be increased. The Dutch Union of Tenants has criticised the plans.

The housing market crisis is affecting students: rooms are often expensive or only available temporarily. Various ideas are circulating in politics to tackle the excesses, but interventions sometimes have unintended consequences.

For example, an attempt to cap rents and provide better tenant protection for students led to a wave of sales by private landlords, causing many rental properties to disappear from the market. This was also due to fiscal measures that increased taxes on property ownership.

The new cabinet now wants to adjust the rules for students. They should be able to receive a temporary rental contract from their landlord, according to the Minister of Housing, Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan.

Disadvantage in own city

This is because private landlords prefer temporary contracts, the minister writes in a letter to the House of Representatives. At present, students can only receive a temporary rental contract if they come from outside the municipality, for example if they are doing an internship in another city or taking a minor elsewhere. As a result, students are at a disadvantage in their own city when searching for housing.

A previous argument for temporary contracts was that private individuals would be more willing to rent out a home or room that might otherwise stand empty for a while. Under the current rules, this is therefore more difficult.

More expensive in the centre

In addition, the cabinet wants to make higher rents possible in the city centres of cities such as Amsterdam and Utrecht. At present, the location of a property does not carry enough weight in the rules for the maximum rent, the cabinet argues. This can make a difference of 96 euros per month. The rent could be even higher if the property is a listed building.

A home without outdoor space (such as a small garden) also does not necessarily have to be cheaper than one with outdoor space. In city centres, it is not always possible to offer outdoor space, the argument goes.

The House of Representatives would prefer to regulate such matters by law, but the minister would rather use an ‘order in council’ so that it can be done more quickly. It remains to be seen what the House will think of this.

Response

The Dutch Union of Tenants is not impressed by the cabinet’s new plans. “Policy should be based on facts, not on assumptions or lobbying pressure”, said director Zeno Winkels in a press release. The current Affordable Rent Act has been in force for less than two years. The organisation would prefer to wait for an evaluation rather than intervene now.

The Dutch Union of Tenants points, among other things, to the increased taxes landlords have to pay on their property holdings. These sometimes make it unprofitable to rent out a property. The new measures pass that cost on to tenants, the organisation argues.

Last autumn, the National Student Union protested against the housing shortage together with several other interest groups. The union does not see temporary contracts as a solution, ‘because after one or two years you could simply end up back on the street’.