Tenants of Mannoury complex in Amsterdam lose homes after promised indefinite lease expires

“I was dancing on the table, yes. Finally a house in Amsterdam.” Mireya Wouters cannot believe her luck when she is told in the spring of 2021 that she can rent an apartment in a brand new residential tower. She is then the first resident. “And also in a nice place.”

Mid rent

The complex was developed by Aedes Real Estate and is located between Lelylaan station and the A10. Aedes owns a total of 64 apartments in the two modern residential towers. More than forty of these are so-called medium-priced rental homes, also referred to as mid-market rentals for short. These are homes with a rent above the social rent limit, but below the market price.

These houses are reserved for people with an average income or a little more; people who often fall between two stools (a social housing association home) and a ship (the free rental market) in the competitive Amsterdam housing market. For an apartment of more than 50 square meters you pay about 1150 per month in Mannoury, including service costs. A godsend: on the free market you can easily pay four hundred euros more per month for a comparable home.

Visibility indefinitely

The new tenants of the medium-priced apartments will all receive a contract for two years in the summer of 2021. But, as tenant Lennard (last name known to the editors, ed.) is told during the key transfer: after that, the tenants will most likely receive a contract for an indefinite period. “We had to see those first two years as a kind of trial period. To see if we would be good tenants.”

Partly for this reason, Lennard decides to put a lot of money into his new house. “I had to, because there was nothing on the floor yet, for example. Because I expected to be able to live there for a while, I took a slightly more expensive floor. In the end I put a few thousand euros in this apartment.”

Mireya says that she will hear the same story at her key transfer. “We had a drink after the delivery, then I was still talking about it with another tenant, who said she had been told the same thing.” The scope: nice, good tenants can count on an extension.

It does not occur to the tenants to include the commitment in the contract. Michelle Bouwers, another tenant who also receives the key at the same time, asks about this in an email to the rental agent, Eefje Voogd Makelaardij. The answer is that there is indeed a ‘possibility of extension’. But, it adds, “this decision is up to the developer.”

Areas for own staff

It is not immediately clear why developer and owner Aedes Real Estate ultimately does not offer permanent contracts to middle tenants. “At first they gave no explanation at all,” says Lennard. Another tenant says that Aedes has investigated whether the tenants can exchange homes with each other in order to continue living in the complex.

But then, in March this year, the manager of the complex sends a message on behalf of the owner. The mid-rental contracts will not be renewed.

Lennard: “It stated that they also wanted to give other people the chance to have a home in the middle segment. And that they wanted to give their own staff the opportunity to live in the complex.” A strange explanation, according to many tenants. “With this flow, you only move the problem, don’t you? And we once looked at the Aedes site: about twenty people work there. Even if they all want to live here, there are still apartments left.”

It seems unlikely that there is a financial motive behind the termination of the leases. “It has been agreed with the developer that these apartments will remain in the middle segment for 17 years,” says a spokesperson for Reinier van Dantzig, alderman for housing. An Aedes employee confirms by telephone that the apartments will remain in the mid-range segment. The rent will therefore not be drastically increased for new residents.

‘Sham argument’

Aedes does not want to give a further explanation of the reasons for not offering the tenants a new contract. Eefje Voogd Makelaardij and Vastgoed Unie, who have been the manager of the complex since February this year, also indicate that they do not want to respond substantively.

Flavio Del Pomo is committed to tenants on behalf of the Bond Precaire Woonvormen. He is angry about the state of affairs: “There is a false argument that everything goes according to the law, but that does not make it morally right. These tenants have been fooled.” The fact that the lease term is clearly stated in the contract makes little impression on Del Pomo. “It’s not like they had a wide choice of other homes in the current circumstances.”

For the departing tenants, there is little choice but to look for a new home. “I’ve already responded to several houses and talked to a few real estate agents,” says Mireya. She has also applied to other new-build complexes in the city. “But I was immediately rejected, they were probably already full.”