Work to do

Working towards a healthy housing market with sufficient supply for all target groups and normalization of prices requires action on many fronts. I have written it before: we simply cannot afford to bet on one horse. Inner-city transformation is needed just as much as large new construction projects outside the city. High-rise buildings are important, but so are low-rise buildings. At the same time, we must realize that all the actions we take now will only yield results in 5 to 10 years’ time. Because in one way or another it always backfires somewhere. If not in the procedure, then in the building process or in the financing.

So let’s not get rich on all sorts of thoughts and wishful thinking. In the past there has been a strong focus on transforming vacant commercial buildings and offices into residential apartments. That has resulted in some nice residential buildings and there is probably still something to be gained there. But the need for housing has only increased, as has the enormous shortage on the housing market. Now the expectation is again that increasing vacancy rates of stores (due to the growth of online shopping, reinforced by the corona crisis) will provide opportunities for housing. We should certainly seize these opportunities, but again, do not cherish exaggerated expectations.

There have been studies with an outcome of 10,000 realizable homes in retail properties. We also saw studies that turned out to be more wishful thinking. In the province of North Holland alone, we saw 25,000 apartments appear in vacant retail properties or on vacant sites in shopping areas. A study by the NVM now shows that at most 6,500 homes are feasible in the coming years. Although a total of 800,000 square meters of retail space has been vacant for more than a year, there are many limiting factors. These range from problems arising from the zoning plan to excessively high renovation costs or other adverse constraints, such as insufficient daylight.

So realism is appropriate here as well. There is still a lot of work to be done before we get to “living in the store” on any scale. In the meantime, I think we will be looking for a temporary place to live in bungalow, hotel, caravan or tent on a large scale in the coming weeks. After an eventful year, we are all ready for that.