Housing rights: Utrecht’s challenges and solutions

Utrecht is the fastest-growing city in The Netherlands, a place that strives to provide a high-quality life to its inhabitants. It is developing from a medium-sized provincial city into a regional capital home to 350,000 people expected to become around 455,000 in 20 years. On top of that, Utrecht is one of the happiest cities in the world, according to the United Nations.

More people means that more homes are needed in a place where there’s not much land available. Additionally, prices are prohibitive for many, including the younger generation and the middle class. The housing crisis was indeed among the key topics in the latest general elections held on 22 November 2023.

We interviewed Utrecht’s Deputy Mayor Dennis de Vries to learn more about how the city is tackling the housing crisis.

What’s the current housing situation in Utrecht? Does the offer satisfy the demand?

The demand for social or affordable housing among residents is increasing. Over the past 10 years, there has been a decline in the availability of affordable housing in Utrecht, as well as in the Netherlands in general. Between 2019 and 2023, we observed: 

• A decrease in social housing from 35% to 32%; 
• A decrease in affordable homeownership from 19% to 10% in 4 years, and we expect this to decline further; 
• Due to municipal efforts, the supply of mid-priced rental housing increased from 11% to 16%. 

The waiting time for social housing has been approximately 11 years for many years. 32% of our housing stock is social rental, 29% is owned by housing corporations, and 3% is owned by private landlords. Approximately 2,600 homes become available each year through new construction or relocations. 

The high-demand trend is also evident in social housing lotteries. In 2020, there were about 700 applications per property. By 2023, this had risen to approximately 2,000, mainly younger households and people with little registration time signing up. Indeed, we noticed that the younger someone is, the less likely they are to secure social housing. Young people have the highest rent burden, particularly in the private rental market.  

There is also a growing demand for housing for residents in vulnerable positions. Unfortunately, such housing is not always available, preventing these residents from moving forward and rebuilding their lives. 

Is tourism a factor in this housing crisis? 

In the early days of Airbnb, the tourist demand was a significant factor. However, from 2017, the number of Airbnb listings dropped by approximately 60%. 

The number has decreased thanks to the significant measures the municipality implemented to regulate this market. We aim to protect the housing supply for residents and counter unfair competition with hotels. Since 2021, landlords are required to register. Additionally, a property may only be rented out for up to 60 days per year for vacation purposes. 

How are you addressing the housing emergency?

We aim to regain more control over housing policy and focus on affordable and appropriate housing. Additionally, we collaborate with our partners, considering housing corporations as our most important partners because they provide affordable housing in our city in the long term. 

We build 3,000 homes per year, including temporary housing, but new construction alone cannot solve the emergency.

That’s why we consider shared housing an important contribution to addressing the housing crisis. Due to the severe shortage of (affordable) housing, house seekers are making different choices. One significant choice is that people prefer to share a home rather than being forced to stay with their parents or remain in student housing. Additionally, we record a trend of decreasing household size, with an increasing number of single-person households. To incentivise shared housing, we are implementing various measures such as:

• No permit is required for up to three individuals sharing an apartment
• Improving the availability of information for property owners and residents
• Encouraging the development of high-quality shared housing concepts in new construction projects. 

Finally, in October 2023, we introduced a Vacancy Ordinance to prevent unused housing. Our principle is that every vacant home is one too many. So far, it seems that the ordinance has a preventive effect, as many property owners report vacancies to avoid municipal enforcement. Additionally, the number of long-term vacant homes has decreased. The Vacancy Ordinance will be evaluated in 2025 to examine how the approach to tackling vacancies can be more efficient. 

We are also working on introducing a regulation to prevent houses from being bought for rental (buy-to-let), and ensuring that homes built for middle-income residents are initially allocated to this group by issuing housing permits based on income checks. 

How do you combine these measures with limiting urban sprawl to preserve resources? 

In Utrecht, we anticipate the need to construct approximately 60,000 additional homes by 2040. 

The municipality’s strategy is to accommodate growth primarily within the existing urban area, as space in our city is limited and only one significant greenfield site remains, the Rijnenburg. This involves transforming outdated sites and unused buildings, as well as developing vacant plots. In general, homes need to be renovated to improve sustainability and housing quality. Housing corporations are required to eliminate EFG energy labels by 2028 (except for monuments). Utrecht builds upon its existing urban fabric, generating resources to enhance public spaces, amenities, and infrastructure. 

We favour inner-city densification for its multiple benefits, including preserving the surrounding landscape, better utilisation and expansion of existing economic and social amenities, energy efficiency, reduced car mobility, and mixed-use developments. 

 How do you combine these measures with energy and climate objectives? 

In principle, densification efforts can support energy and climate goals. By concentrating on development and proximity, sustainability benefits can be achieved. In a densely built city, it is crucial to ensure well-designed public spaces with sufficient greenery and amenities. Addressing issues such as heat stress by creating green spaces is also vital for a future-proof city. 

However, under current conditions, it is challenging to simultaneously achieve goals for affordable housing, circularity, and sustainability. It is not feasible to meet all these objectives at once. As a result, the municipality increasingly faces tough choices, such as:

• We are dependent on private parties for development, as the municipality owns little land. These parties need a viable business case to start developing;
• Utrecht has many ambitions concerning affordable housing, circularity, sustainability, greenery, etc. We want to grow in balance, which requires a quality boost in the city; 
• We see that the accumulation of requirements makes the business case for developers increasingly unfeasible. Therefore, we must assess each project to determine what is achievable, as we cannot always meet all ambitions.  

What do you ask the new EU commissioner for Energy & Housing, Mr J⌀rgensen, for?

My first question to the new Commissioner would be: what kind of responsibility is the EU willing to take on housing issues? 

How can we create EU public investments for housing? The EU Commissioner should establish conditions for affordable housing, for example, through the European Investment Bank. 

How can cities address homelessness, which is a housing issue? The basic human right to housing is under immense pressure. One proposal could be to allocate a small percentage of funds directly to cities to address homelessness and affordable housing. This would be contrary to current developments, but it would allow for quick actions to force necessary changes. Housing First should be a high priority. 

There has been a significant rise in housing prices across European cities. Affordable housing also concerns middle-income households. How can we empower social housing entities to act and invest for middle incomes? Essential workers, such as police officers, teachers, and nurses, can no longer afford to live in cities, making urban areas increasingly dysfunctional. The younger generation also faces challenges. This creates various social tensions. How can we reduce the time it takes to realise new housing projects? The market is not on our side, so state intervention is essential, and the EU can reinforce this through policy conditions. Cities will struggle to function if we cannot offer affordable housing for residents to live and start families. 

We view housing corporations as key partners in ensuring long-term affordable housing to also provide housing for middle-income groups. Currently, European state aid rules hinder this. Like our national government, we ask for an expansion of the “Service of General Economic Interest” (SGEI) Exemption Decision 2012, allowing more support for affordable rental housing providers for middle-income groups. We welcome the Commissioner’s initiatives in this regard. Hopefully, this can be achieved quickly, as it also requires adjustments to national regulations. 

So the question is: what kind of cities do we want in Europe? We can collaborate on this issue. Use our knowledge. Help us tackle this complex problem. 

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Interested in learning more about the housing crisis in Europe? Discover the challenges Budapest and Verona are striving to tackle and read about the broader situation in different EU cities.