Last year a law was passed which prescribes that the rent increase in the free sector may not exceed the inflation of the previous year plus 1 percent. That law is intended to protect tenants against exorbitant increases, but the extremely high inflation at the moment threatens to turn out very differently.
Unprecedented increase
Suppose that prices rise by an average of 7 percent this year, which still seems on the conservative side at the moment, then rents in the free sector may rise by 8 percent next year. For a tenant who pays 1000 euros per month, that means an increase of no less than 80 euros per month, and 960 euros per year. “This is unprecedented”, says Marcel Trip of the Woonbond.
The Woonbond, an organization that defends the interests of tenants, has therefore sent a letter to the House of Representatives today. The union wants a quick look at an amendment to the law.
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Pieter Herman is chairman of his tenants’ association and rents an apartment in a larger complex in Amsterdam. He can already see the storm coming. “The rents here are on average about 1200 to 1500 euros. So every increase is quickly a significant amount.”
The rent increase is therefore high on his agenda. “We discussed it at the board meeting. Knowing the behavior of our landlord, the increase next year will quickly become 120 to 150 euros per month for many tenants.”
Tenants in trouble
“Continuing with the current rental policy in 2023 is not an option. This will get tenants into trouble. A rent freeze is a good step to help tenants, and gives them time to think about future rental policy,” according to the Woonbond.
The organization advocates in any case to let go of the link between rents and inflation. “Originally, the connection between rent increases and inflation was created to protect tenants. That does not work enough.” One option, according to the Woonbond, is to link the rent increase to the average increase in wages.
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Support in The Hague
There is increasing support in the House of Representatives to amend the law. “This will lead to extreme increases. We can look at other options,” Faissal Boulakjar, MP for coalition party D66, told RTL Nieuws.
This seems to indicate a majority in favor of amending the law. In February, PvdA MP Henk Nijboer submitted a motion to amend the law, which he devised himself. That motion was narrowly rejected because the entire coalition voted against. D66 will therefore now return to this. The CDA also says it is ‘thinking’ about future rental developments.
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New system
The Ministry of the Interior announced today that a change in the law is in the works. This would give housing minister Hugo de Jonge the opportunity to determine the maximum rent increase every year, just as it applies to social rents.
This creates the opportunity to equate the maximum rent increase with inflation, set it slightly lower or even disconnect it completely from inflation if necessary, writes Minister De Jonge.
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