Liesbeth Schreiner points them out one by one, the houses across the Valutaboulevard that have fallen prey to investors. Until about five years ago, only families lived opposite her. More specifically, there was one family per house. But it started in 2017: first number 19 was ‘chambered’. The four-storey house was split up to accommodate four tenants. Then the rest followed: now only four of the eleven houses in the block are home to one family, the rest of the houses have already been or will be split up shortly. They are then rented out for between 1200 and 1500 euros per month, for a floor of 38 square meters.
Real estate investors have set their eyes on the Valutabuurt (a telling name) because the homes there are still relatively affordable and easy to split because of the multiple floors. In the Valutabuurt it is often about ‘housing’, which is formally something different from camera, which often happens to accommodate students, for example. When building a house, an apartment must have its own toilet, shower and kitchen.
It is a lucrative investment: a house on Valutaboulevard, with a value of around 530,000 euros, will yield more than 6,000 euros a month after renovation and will have a market value of 1.13 million euros. This is apparent from a prospectus from a real estate investor, who raised the money for one of the homes in the Valutabuurt through crowdfunding. No fewer than 247 people contributed money in exchange for a hefty return.
Deserted
Schreiner no longer recognizes her own neighborhood. Some buildings are being renovated, others are empty, most likely waiting to be split. In houses where a family used to live, there are now several couples or families. “You see it deteriorating, there is a lot of nuisance. There is permanent renovation, the parking pressure is increasing, the people who move into those cramped homes often leave after a few months.”
Local resident Klaas van Wieren is also disappointed. For the past six months, he has been working at home wearing earmuffs to somewhat muffle the noise of the renovations. He lives in the row where most of the houses have been bought by investors. Several times he, together with Schreiner and other local residents, rang the bell with the municipality, but to no avail. They feel abandoned by the city government.
A deception
The municipality has recently tightened the rules. In the past, housing was allowed for houses from 40 square meters, but since 1 January an apartment must be at least 100 square meters and a single-family house at least 200 square meters before it can be divided. The result of this measure was that 683 permits were quickly applied for just before the new year, according to research by AT5 and NH News.
And it is precisely there that residents who oppose what they call ‘slum landlords’ see legal space. According to Joris van Gool, local resident and chairman of the Affordable Residential City Amsterdam Foundation, the municipality has not paid sufficient attention to the ‘concrete effects at street level’. The importance of quality of life and the maintenance of a good housing stock in this housing block would be violated by granting permits for housing.
On Monday, Van Gool and Schreiner tried, on behalf of several local residents, to put a stop to the splitting of one of the homes on Valutaboulevard. Procedures had not been followed correctly and agreements had been violated, they argued. But because tenants had already moved into the house, their objection was rejected. “A deception,” says Van Gool. “The law of the fittest applies,” says Schreiner.
Van Gool: “The investors who buy all those houses go for maximum return. They want to make as much money as possible by cramming as many people into a house as possible. This causes nuisance, causing people to leave, and those houses are also bought again to be split up. Most of the new residents are expats or migrant workers, who often do not know their rights well. They pay way too much for a house that is way too small. And there is even less left for families looking for an affordable home in Amsterdam.”
No idea who lives there
Rob Bornhim, who lives at the nearby Pennyhof, also sees the quality of life in the neighborhood declining. “On the Pond Sterlinglaan, around the corner from me, it has been under renovation for a year and a half. In the house where a family used to live, there are now three couples. That means more household waste, more occupied parking spaces, more noise pollution. And a huge turnover, because nobody stays very long in such a small apartment for 1500 euros per month.”
“We used to know each other a little bit here. Now I have no idea who lives there.”
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