NOS
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 01:45
The municipality of Utrecht states that a ban on investors buying rental houses has the desired effect. It appears that the purchase protection allows more people to find a home from an analysis by the Land Registry.
While in 2018 13 percent of all houses sold went to a landlord, this was only 2 percent in the first half of this year. The number of starters on the housing market grew: from 26 percent in the second half of 2012 to 53 percent in the past six months.
“It is good to see that the purchase protection works,” says councilor De Vries van Wonen. “It is in line with our principle that housing should not be a revenue model; it is a fundamental right.”
More starters
Utrecht was one of the first municipalities to introduce purchase protection when it became legally possible in 2022 for municipalities with housing shortages. For houses in the cheap and middle segments, the buyer was now obliged to actually live in the house. In Utrecht, this currently applies to all houses under 587,000 euros.
This prevented investors from bidding private individuals out of the market. In Utrecht, starters in particular benefited from this: their share in these segments grew from 41 percent in 2020 to 62 percent this year, while investors fell from 17 percent to 3 percent.
In approximately 85 cases, the municipality made an exception for a buyer to still rent out, mainly if someone bought a home for a family member to live in. Two administrative fines were imposed, amounting to a maximum of 12,500 euros.
Also for the more expensive segment
The analysis also looks at the city council’s wish to also impose a purchasing ban on more expensive segments. However, the municipality doubts whether this is proportionate: 423 homes above 550,000 euros already went to starters this year, compared to only 25 that were bought up by investors.
The advice is therefore not to make such an adjustment now after a year, but at least to wait until the law is evaluated after 5 years.
2023-12-18 00:45:36
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