The municipality of Utrecht wants to compensate corporations if they stop selling social housing

Housing associations will stop selling social rental properties next year. This has been a wish of a large part of the municipal council for some time. However, several conditions have been agreed, including that the municipality will compensate the housing associations for this, with money or by adjusting policy. The stop on sales will only apply for next year.

Every few years the municipality makes agreements with housing associations in Utrecht. Those agreements are now back on paper. The sale of social housing has been a hot topic for some time. Several parties have been calling for a complete stop on the sale of these types of homes for some time and this is also included in the coalition agreement.

On the other hand, various housing associations believe that it may be financially more advantageous to sell social rental properties, after which they can use the money generated from the sale to build new homes or make other homes more sustainable.

New appointments

The new agreements now state that there will be a stop on the sale of social housing, in order to preserve as many social housing as possible.

The municipality does recognize that this can have negative consequences for the wallets of housing associations, because associations earn money by selling homes. The fact that less money is coming in can also have consequences for the construction of new homes. That is why the Municipal Executive is prepared to compensate the corporations. This can be done by giving money or through policy compensation, for example by making land available.

An initial calculation has already been made. The corporations believe that financial compensation of 10.4 million euros is appropriate for next year, if it is assumed that the stop on sales means that 95 homes will not be sold.

The idea now is that the compensation that should be given will be calculated annually, which the municipal council can then look at and agree to. If no agreement is reached on compensation, the housing associations may start selling homes again.

In the upcoming newspaper we will discuss what they think of the new agreements with various parties. And what do the readers actually think? Complete the poll below.

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