A social rental home is normally available for someone who earns a maximum of 40,000 euros (single) to 45,000 euros (family). Skewed residents are people whose income has increased so much over the years that they would no longer be eligible for social housing with their current salary.
Wait longer
The government sees skewed housing as a problem because low-income groups who are dependent on social housing now have to wait a very long time for a rental home. This varies from the national average of 7 years to as much as 17 years in some municipalities.
It will soon be time for the annual rent adjustment for nearly 2.3 million social tenants. On 1 July, housing association rents will increase by an average of 2 percent.
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This year, legal scope has been created especially for skewed residents to increase rents extra. Households with a high middle income (47,948 euros per year for singles, 55,486 euros for a family) can receive a 50 euro rent increase. With high incomes (from 56,527 euros for singles, 75,396 euros for a family) the rent can be increased to 100 euros per month in one go.
Skewed residents are spared
Corporations can decide for themselves whether they want to make use of this. Private landlords are also allowed to implement the rent increase. A survey by the umbrella association Aedes among 169 affiliated housing associations shows that six out of ten Dutch housing associations will not apply an income-related rent increase this year and thus spare skewed residents.
This goes against the wish of the cabinet, which wants tenants with a high income to pay an ‘appropriate’ rent. For ten years now, parties, in particular the VVD and CDA, have been trying to make skewed residents pay more for their social housing. The rent jumps of 50 or 100 euros that are possible from this year are the most drastic measures to date.
Precisely because the theme is so much in the political spotlight, Professor of Housing Market Peter Boelhouwer (TU Delft) says it is remarkable that many housing associations make a different decision: “In this way, housing associations support really high income groups. This is at the expense of people with a narrow stock market and also of the possibilities of corporations to invest.”
Check here how many skewed residents live in your municipality (in 2020).
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Housing associations have all kinds of reasons not to raise the rent of skewed residents, according to a tour of RTL Nieuws. Different housing associations in the same region sometimes make very different choices.
For Wooncompagnie, 14,000 rental homes in North Holland, it is a basic choice, says director Stefan van Schaik. “The group that earns just a little more is very small in size. Moreover, they are people with professions in, for example, education or who work in a store. These are not people who earn a lot more. We believe that we cannot do more there. can request.”
‘Tenants can’t go anywhere’
The smaller housing corporation Woonpalet in Zeewolde says it will not implement the rent increase, among other things, because it does not necessarily need the extra money. Another argument is that, according to Woonpalet, crooked residents have no way out. Due to the housing crisis, there is little or no room for high middle incomes in the free sector, so Woonpalet does not expect that skewed residents will give up their home after a rent increase. Of the 2000 tenants of this housing association, 170 households have a higher or high middle income, but they will not be imposed the extra rent increase.
In nearby Lelystad, the Centrada housing association hopes that the rent increase will promote traffic flow. “The measure ensures that these households look for a rental home in the free sector or a home for sale. Desirable (…) especially given the current waiting times for social rental homes in Lelystad.”
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Wooninc from Eindhoven is waiving the extra increase because the number of skewed residents would be relatively small, so it has ‘virtually no effect’ on the budget, says Wooninc.
Strongest shoulders heaviest burdens
In another Brabant city, Tilburg, the housing association TBV does support the measure because it allows the increase for poorer tenants to remain limited. “We believe that the strongest shoulders should carry the heaviest burdens.”
Professor Boelhouwer agrees. “Corporations must build new homes, make them more sustainable and keep rents low for low-income groups. They are short of billions for this,” says the professor. “If you have the opportunity to earn something here, yes, then I would say: use it.”
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The number of ‘cheew residents’, as households with too high an income are called and who live ‘too cheaply’ according to central government definitions, has been declining for years. Since 2015, the number has decreased from 266,000 to 205,000 households, according to the national Housing Survey 2021. Experts from Aedes estimate that this concerns about 8 to 10 percent of the total number of housing association tenants.
‘Cheap’ does not apply to everyone
The large housing corporation Eigen Haard from Amsterdam knows that 11 percent of its social tenants have a high middle or high income, a total of 5600 households. Eigen Haard will implement the increase for these people as much as possible.
According to Eigen Haard director Bert Halm, households with a high income remain welcome, but it is ‘fair’ that they pay a higher rent than poorer tenants. “These are such high incomes that they would not qualify for our mid-segment rent,” says Eigen Haard director Halm. “Cheap rental housing is our core business, but not for everyone.”
In conversation
Minister Hugo de Jonge (public housing) is not forcing housing associations to tackle skewed housing, but the subject is on the agenda of the talks he has with housing associations. “Applying the income-related rent increase is not mandatory, but I do expect housing associations to make sensible use of this in order to be able to realize their social tasks.”
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