Renting a flat in the Netherlands is not cheap, especially in large cities. People who are legally resident in the country and do not earn much can apply for social housing (sociale huurwoning). In the case of popular cities, you have to expect a long waiting period.
Social housing in the Netherlands is usually owned by housing cooperatives (corporations) (so-called woningcorporations). To obtain social housing, you must meet certain conditions.
Conditions for applying for social housing
– You should register with a housing cooperative in the municipality or region where you want to live. There are many housing cooperatives in the Netherlands, so first check which one is active in the region where you are looking for a flat. If there are several cooperatives in a region, there is usually one organisation that distributes flats in that area (e.g. woningnet.nl ). More on this below (“Registering with a housing cooperative”).
– Income requirements must be met. Cooperatives are required to rent apartments primarily to people with lower incomes. Currently, at least 80% of all apartments from the corporation must go to people or households with earnings of up to EUR 35,739 gross per year (2016 amount). Cooperatives can also (but do not have to) rent 10% of apartments to households with incomes of EUR 35,739-39,874 gross per year and 10% of apartments to households with incomes above EUR 39,874 gross per year. Therefore, people with incomes of up to EUR 35,739 gross per year have the greatest chance of finding social housing.
– Sometimes housing corporations also require a document called “huisvestingsvergunning” (“housing permit”), which can be obtained from the municipal office. The municipality may require people who want to obtain this document to prove that they already live, work or study in the place where they want to apply for social housing. Some housing corporations only grant apartments to people who are already connected in some way to a given region or municipality.
– Corporations can also set additional conditions for specific apartments: some are only for one- or two-person households (due to their small size) or exclusively for seniors, others (e.g. those with very low rent) only for people with really low incomes, etc. The same applies to more expensive apartments, which can often only be applied for by people with slightly higher incomes. Corporations can refuse to rent apartments with rents higher than 586.68 euros per month to single people with incomes up to 22,100 euros gross per year. Corporations can refuse to rent apartments with rents higher than 628.76 euros per month to households consisting of at least two people and with a combined income of less than 30,000 euros gross per year (all amounts are from 2016).
Joining a housing cooperative
You don’t have to be a Dutch citizen to apply for social housing. Foreigners – for example from Poland – legally residing in the Netherlands can also apply for this type of housing.
Many housing corporations are associated with the organization Woningnet.nl. It cooperates with about 100 cooperatives and has several regional versions. If someone is looking for social housing in Amsterdam and the surrounding area, they should sign up for Woningnet Stadsregio Amsterdam ( www.woningnetregioamsterdam.nl ) – and then arm themselves with patience, because the waiting time for an apartment in the capital can often be a dozen or so years.
Which housing cooperative should you join if you are looking for social housing in…:
…Amsterdam – Woningnet Stadsregio Amsterdam www.woningnetregioamsterdam.nl
…Utrecht – Woningnet Stadsregio Utrecht – www.woningnetregioutrecht.nl
…Groningen – www.woningnetgroningen.nl
(Other regions “served” by Woningnet: www.woningnet.nl )
…The Hague – www.woonnet-haaglanden.nl
…Rotterdam – www.woonnetrijnmond.nl
You can sign up for a corporation online. There is usually a fee involved. In The Hague it is 12.50 euros per year and in Rotterdam 10 euros per year. In Amsterdam you have to pay 50 euros to sign up, and then 8 euros for each additional year.
Some housing cooperatives also sell apartments. You can read about how to buy an apartment cheaply from a corporation in Rotterdam HERE
Searching for an apartment
After signing up to the appropriate cooperative, the user can respond to advertisements posted online by the corporation. In large cooperatives, even dozens of new apartments appear every week, and the user – depending on the rules applied by the cooperative – can respond to, for example, two advertisements per week. Most apartments are allocated based on the waiting time (although there are also apartments from a lottery or apartments without a queue for people in difficult life situations – more on this later in the text).
The longer a person is registered with the corporation, the greater the chance of receiving an apartment. If an advertisement for a given apartment has resulted in, for example, 200 responses, the candidate with the longest waiting period will be at the top of the list of people who will be able to accept that apartment. Corporations usually invite the people who are at the top of the candidate list to see a given apartment. So it happens that, for example, ten candidates with the longest waiting period who responded to a given offer are invited to a joint viewing of the apartment. These people then declare whether they are still interested in the apartment. So if candidates number 1 and 2 withdraw, and candidate number 3 agrees, then the apartment will be awarded to candidate number 3. Of course, the certainty of receiving the apartment is only when the cooperative checks the documents provided by the candidate, concerning, for example, income, family situation or current place of residence.
Waiting time
Some regions of the Netherlands are more popular than others, some municipalities have a lot of social housing, others less… All this – as well as the personal situation of the person looking for a place to live (income, household size) – influences the waiting time for social housing.
Apart from exceptional situations (see below: “Apartments without a queue” and “Apartments from a draw”), in the case of the most popular places (e.g. Amsterdam, Utrecht) you sometimes have to wait for a flat for a dozen or so years. If a person does not expect to earn much in the near future and wants to find a flat in one of the popular municipalities, it is recommended that they sign up with a housing cooperative as soon as possible. The waiting time is the basic criterion that decides who will be allocated a flat (if of course the person meets the conditions regarding income, household size, etc.).
In less popular municipalities – for example, in smaller towns outside the Randstad (Amsterdam-Rotterdam-The Hague-Utrecht) – social housing can be obtained more quickly; sometimes even after a few or a dozen months of waiting. An analysis conducted by RTL television in 2015 showed that the longest waiting time for social housing was in Purmerend (an average of 21 years), Amsterdam Centrum (17 years) and Hoofddorp (17 years), but in regions such as Nieuw Lekkerland or Ede Veldhuizen it was “only” 3 years. The calculation method used by RTL was met with much criticism and according to some experts, the actual waiting time in the above-mentioned municipalities is actually shorter. It is therefore difficult to determine exactly how long you have to wait for an apartment in individual regions. It is best to “google” a bit yourself and look for information on the average waiting time for an apartment in the municipality where you are looking for accommodation.
Apartments “without queues”
Some people can get social housing much faster than others waiting. This is the case for people who meet certain conditions (so-called “urgentiecriteria”). Such conditions may include: illness, family situation (e.g. current apartment is too small for a large family), age (e.g. current apartment is not adapted to the elderly tenant) or long commute to work.
Apartments from the draw
In order to give a chance (and hope) for a flat to people who have only recently registered with the housing cooperative, some housing corporations also allocate (a small) part of the flats by lottery. This is the case, for example, in Amsterdam, The Hague or Rotterdam. In the case of flats distributed in this way, it does not matter how long a person has been registered with the cooperative. The chances in the lottery of a person who registered a month ago and a person who has been registered for 10 years are the same.
Since there are not many apartments from the draw, in the case of popular cities the number of applicants can be very large. For example, in Amsterdam, it is not uncommon for 2,000-3,000 people to apply for an apartment from the draw. To get such an apartment, you have to be very lucky. But in Rotterdam, for example, it happens that only a few dozen candidates apply for an apartment from the draw. Then the chances of a lucky draw (made by computer) are much greater. In Amsterdam, too, it happens that for example “only” about 200 people apply for an apartment from the draw – but then these are usually apartments in the not so popular district of Amsterdam-Zuidoost and with relatively high rent.
The amount of rent
The maximum rent for a social housing unit in 2016 is 737.14 euros per month. A flat with a “bare” rent (i.e. without included charges) higher than this amount cannot have the status of a social housing unit. The rent for social housing units usually ranges between 400 and 700 euros per month. In the case of people with the lowest incomes (single person maximum 22,100 euros gross per year, multi-person household maximum 30,000 euros per year), corporations should in 95% of cases rent them flats with a rent of maximum 586.68 euros per month (single person) or 628.76 euros per month (multi-person household). The rent amounts are a bit of a lottery: in Amsterdam, for example, it happens that a large social housing unit in a good district has a rent of around 500 euros, while a smaller social housing unit in a worse part of the city has a rent of 650 euros. In both cases, however, this is significantly less than the cost of renting a similar flat on the free market.
After obtaining social housing, you have to expect some additional expenses. The apartments are usually not only without furniture, but also, for example, without proper flooring. New residents must therefore invest in renovating the apartment: laying the floor, painting the walls, buying and delivering furniture, etc.
Supplement to rent huurtoeslag
Those who earn little and live in a social housing with a relatively high rent can apply for a rent supplement, the so-called huurtoeslag . Only people renting apartments with a rent of up to 737.14 euros per month can apply for huurtoeslag. At the same time, the income of these people cannot be too high. The amount of the huurtoeslag supplement depends on, among other things, the rent, income and size of the household.