With growing concerns about whether rental housing will be affordable for tenants, an increasing number of Dutch municipalities have called on the government to halt plans to raise rents from July 2025.

Several Dutch municipalities oppose higher rents 

From July 2025, based on the plans set out by the government, rental prices will increase by a maximum of 4,1 percent in the private sector, 5 percent for social housing and 7,7 percent for mid-range rentals. Even though the PVV advocated for lowering rents, they were not prepared to make arrangements within the deadline to stop the price hike, which means that rents are likely to increase as planned. 

The city council in Amsterdam recently passed a motion to stop the rent hike planned in July as there are concerns that many tenants will be unable to pay for more expensive housing. According to Kassa, other municipalities, including Eindhoven, Apeldoorn, Oss, Hilversum, Lingewaard and Hoorn, have also opposed the rent hike. 

However, as municipal councils do not have direct influence on the rental policies of housing corporations, the local governments still need to negotiate with the organisations.

Dutch housing corporations say rent hikes “necessary”

The trade association of housing corporations in the Netherlands, Aedes, argues that increasing rental prices is necessary to make improvements to housing and sustainability. “We want to be there for both current and future tenants,” said Aedes spokesperson Ernst Koelman. “The rent increase is unfortunately very necessary for this, because the budgets of corporations have not been balanced for years.”

For this reason, some municipalities such as Maastricht support the rent hike, stating that it is not responsible to increase rents by a lower percentage than the national level due to the financial position that housing corporations are in. 

Woonbond, a Dutch housing association representing the rights of tenants, believes that the costs of construction and other improvements should not be shouldered by tenants alone. “These are major societal challenges, the bill for which is now being passed on entirely to the tenant. We are very concerned about this,” said director Zeno Winkels. 

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