More residential construction than expected in Amsterdam in 2022: ‘Construction peak has continued’ | Amsterdam
NewsLast year, the construction of 8401 homes in Amsterdam started, considerably more than the ambition of 7500 homes. Most of them are in Southeast, New West and North. The number of social rental homes is still lagging behind the intended ambitions.
Alderman Reinier van Dantzig (Housing) collectively speaks of ‘great news’ that the ‘construction peak has continued in 2022’. He points to the underlying circumstances: rising construction costs, rising interest rates and scarcity of materials and personnel.
According to him, the fact that it was successful in 2022 is that 8401 homes can be built, partly by investing heavily in housing projects, so that even if a number of them do not go ahead, enough has still been built. In addition, he states that in challenging times, the developers and builders ‘managed to continue at a high pace’.
Increase accessibility
To increase accessibility in the city, coalition parties PvdA, GroenLinks and D66 have reached agreement on the desired distribution of homes. This concerns 40 percent social rent, 40 percent medium rent and 20 percent private sector homes.
However, the figures show that last year one in three homes under construction is in the social segment (up to EUR 763.47 rent per month) and 42 percent of homes are in the private sector (both rental and owner-occupied). In the mid-rental category (between 763.47 and 1068.83 euros) there are 2112 homes.
Old agreements
Van Dantzig writes to the municipality that the ‘effect of 40-40-20 policy’ is becoming increasingly visible. He points to old agreements and that there are sometimes deviations from housing plans in which corporations are involved. But: ‘In 2018, 39 percent of the homes under construction consisted of affordable rental homes (social and medium-priced). In the past year that was already 58 percent.’
In the last 9 years, construction has started on more than 63,000 homes. However, Van Dantzig shares that the question is whether the target number of 7500 homes can be achieved again next year. To stimulate housing construction, he will focus on more cooperation with investors, market parties and housing corporations.
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