On the 28th of October, we are rising up against the housing crisis, the real estate industry, failing government policies and the total lack of ambition of the political class.
Of the 980,000 homes to be built through 2030, we demand that at least 750,000 are truly social, permanent and not flex housing.
That means: enough social housing to finally get rid of years of waiting lists, enough housing to house all homeless people, and enough housing for all first-time buyers and others who currently have no place to go.
Real estate developers refuse to build affordable housing and the state finances the construction of villa districts and luxury residential towers. This has to stop. Therefore, municipal construction companies must be established to build and maintain affordable and good quality rental housing that meets the needs of residents. Not developers and slumlords, but municipalities and residents should be in charge of zoning, and they should give all priority to affordable housing.
A nationwide expropriation fund should be established to begin the proactive expropriation of all privately owned vacant land and private rental properties. The expropriated land owners and building owners should be reasonably compensated, but should not make a a big profit.
We propose that the expropriation starts with the largest private investors such as Vesteda (28.000 rental properties) and the titans among private landlords such as Aat van Herk (5.820 rental properties).
In recent years, tens of thousands of social housing units have been sold to private investors for a pittance. This is a violation of the right to housing and a theft of the commons to which we all should have access. These sales to private investors and landlords must be reversed.
Property developers speculate with land prices. They can leave large plots of land to be unused for years for profit maximization with total impunity. This must stop. Therefore, we say: tax unused as much as used land and abolish the self-realization right of developers.
The 'Kraken en leegstand' act should be abolished, and legislation should be put in its place that sanctions vacancy with fines and expropriation.
Vacancy is theft of our housing rights. The 'Kraken en leegstand' act, which criminalized squatting in 2009 and was supposed to address vacancy, is not working. Today, it is still too easy for investors and slumlords to leave homes vacant and neglected. Squatting actually makes sure that gentrified cities become again what they are meant to be: places to live in. Besides tackling vacancy, squatting also offers resistance to the commercialization of the city; where every square centimeter must now earn money, squatting offers an alternative.
We demand that the government explores ways to lower rents, as oppose to increasing them. Until that time, all rents should be frozen immediately.
Rents are already far too high, especially in the private sector, and this year the government also increased the maximum rent increase in the private sector from 3.3% to 4.1%. The argument was that this was because of inflation, but rent increases ARE that inflation. It is bizarre that in the biggest housing crisis since World War II, the government allows rents to continue to rise.
All rent should be regulated based on the quality of the home.
The unregulated rents in the private sector mean only one thing: people pay (much) too high rents for the value of the home they live in. This can't continue like this. All rent, including in the private sector, should therefore be regulated based on the quality of the home.