News 28 augustus 2021
Last update 21:01
The housing shortage in Amsterdam is dire. But US “real estate investor,” the new term for speculators, Blackstone is leaving hundreds of homes in the capital vacant. GroenLinks alderman Rutger Groot Wassink, who temporarily manages the housing portfolio, reports the abuses in response to questions from the local SP. The SP asked for clarification after a squatted house in the Amsterdam neighborhood De Pijp was evicted by the police.
“Given the great housing shortage in Amsterdam, the council finds it socially unacceptable to leave houses vacant for a long time,” writes Groot Wassink. He says the city council is fighting “with all possible means” long-term vacant homes. “It is a duty to use homes for what they are intended, namely habitation.” (…) The alderman believes that the current Vacancy Act does not provide sufficient opportunities to tackle long-term vacancy. Currently, the municipality can only issue fines if vacancy is not reported, but the city council also wants to be able to issue fines for vacancy itself. However, after the report and the conversation with the municipality, the vacancy would “in many cases” be resolved by the owners.
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The answers show that at least 334 properties owned by Blackstone were uninhabited. Whether that is still the case is unclear because the company wholesales in subsidiaries and the municipality has too few resources to find out.
Erik Flength, party leader of the SP, wants the American speculator to disappear from the city.
In any case, this grasshopper investor shows that he has little interest in the needs of Amsterdammers.
And so I say: Blackstone get out of our town
– Erik Flentge (@ErikFlentge) August 27, 2021
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