Voting for the housing market

Dealing with the corona crisis naturally hangs like a slightly suffocating blanket over the upcoming House of Representatives elections. Yet, fortunately, other topics will also play a major role. Recent research commissioned by De Volkskrant shows that voters consider the ‘housing market/affordable housing/rent’ issue to be the second most important at the moment. At number 1 – as four years ago – is health care. At that time, the housing market scored only a tenth place in the ranking after themes such as sustainability, security and economy. The number of voters who attach importance to the housing market has more than doubled. A clear sign that the housing shortage is being felt by large groups of the population, whether in the Randstad, Eindhoven, Helmond or places like Nuenen, Eersel, Best or Deurne.

That politicians must give much greater priority to stimulating housing construction in a wide variety and must do everything possible to keep the homes affordable for large groups of people is, of course, beyond dispute. That far too little has been done about it in recent times is also beyond dispute. According to the latest data from CBS, last year we achieved a production of 69,000 new homes in our country, 3% less than in 2019. And the target number of 75,000 new homes thus remains far out of sight.

An effort is desperately needed from all parties involved to increase that number quickly. And I don’t just mean political parties, but also market parties. However, more effort from the national, provincial and municipal governments is indispensable. Of course I’m not going to give voting advice, but I do hope that many voters will take a good look at this subject. And that they look at what political parties are planning and what they have done in the past on the important issue of housing. On Saturday afternoon, February 20 (starting at 16:00), the National Housing Debate, organized by Omroep WNL, will be on NPO Radio 1. The NVM brokers have provided input through a survey on bottlenecks in the housing market and possible solutions. I recommend everyone to go and listen, so you can better determine which party has the best approach. Then you can vote for the housing market on 17 March – a month from now.