Starting housing co-ops to become easier with new Dutch law

The House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) has approved a new housing law that would make it easier for a group of residents to start a housing cooperative in the Netherlands, easing the pressure felt by the housing crisis. 

Dutch bill makes housing cooperatives more accessible

At the end of June, the Dutch government approved the Housing Cooperatives Promotion Act, which aims to make it easier to set up a housing cooperative, reports NOS. A housing cooperative concerns a group of residents who manage and maintain multiple homes together, often with shared facilities, without a profit motive. 

The bill, first put forward by MP Sandra Beckerman (SP), would give the housing cooperative “a broadly applicable and clear definition in the Housing Act”. Two new definitions will be included, namely the management housing cooperative, where residents manage the homes which are owned by a housing corporation, and the property housing cooperative, where residents develop or purchase the homes themselves.

Under the new law, municipalities will be encouraged to adopt policy on housing cooperatives and obstacles to starting housing cooperatives will be removed. For example, the government is allocating 60 million euros to make financing housing co-ops more accessible. 

Currently, it is difficult to get a mortgage from Dutch banks for a housing cooperative, as it is considered risky because it is unclear whether it concerns a loose group of people or a business entity.

Housing co-ops possible solution to Dutch housing crisis

According to Mustapha Eaisaouiyen from the association for housing cooperatives Cooplink, housing co-ops are the “gold standard for affordable rental housing”. Eaisaouiyen states homes in housing cooperatives are often more affordable than those in housing corporations.

The Netherlands has been in the grips of a housing crisis for year, with the average Dutch rent costing more than 1.800 euros and the average income affording only 21 percent of homes on the market. The Dutch Consumers’ Association (Consumentenbond) even understood that it is easier to have a home with multiple people and launched the friends mortgage earlier this year. 

Beckerman sees the bill as a possible solution to the housing crisis in the Netherlands. "With this, we are really trying to set a movement in motion and give systemic change a push," Beckerman told NOS. Eaisaouiyen agrees, believing that housing cooperatives could contribute 10 percent to the 100.000 homes the government wants to develop every year. 

Not only are homes in co-ops often more affordable, but they also create a greater sense of community, with residents often spending a lot more time together, from eating to working in the communal garden and looking after each other’s children. "People are happier there than in an exorbitantly expensive flat," according to Beckerman.