Is renting unaffordable in the Netherlands?

The Impact of the ‘Scellier’ Income Tax Relief on Building Land Prices in France

“…This result is consistent with Wetzstein's (2017) observation that there is a lack of affordable dwellings in cities. Tables 2 and 3 give evidence of the Schwabe law as also observed by Haffner & Boumeester (2014): the lower the income, the higher the housing burden. This empirical law can be extended by saying the lower the income, the higher the unaffordability risk for those on low rate of allowance (coefficient "JustHA").…”

“…They hypothesize that it is caused by an increase in housing consumption (because households desire more or better dwellings or because they are forced to reach a minimum standard to be eligible to housing assistance). Haffner & Boumeester (2014) provide evidence that despite housing assistance in practice almost 37% of tenants are overburdened by housing costs in the Netherlands. They even find that 6% of "tenants, who based on the norms, have sufficient income, do not overconsume, live in a rent-controlled dwelling owned by a social landlord, and receive a housing allowance, still cannot afford their housing costs."…”

Meeting the British Housing Challenge: Dutch Experiences and Reflections

“…For owner-occupiers, those fi gures were respectively 13 per cent and 17 per cent. Lowincome households have higher ratios than higher incomes, despite the facts that 88 per cent of all rents are regulated, that housing associations generally do not charge market rents, and that the lowest incomes can get housing allowances (Datawonen;Haff ner and Boumeester, 2014). present the average is 2.2 inhabitants per dwelling; it used to be way over 4 people;  homes are twice the size;  houses are built on plots double the size.…”

An exploration of concepts and polices on ‘affordable housing’ in England, Italy, Poland and The Netherlands

“…This standard of affordability is often defined as housing costs that should not exceed a fixed proportion of household income and/or should result in a household income that is sufficient to meet other basic living costs after allowing for these housing costs. There is a considerable body of research literature on the topic of housing affordability (see Haffner and Heylen 2011;Haffner and Boumeester 2014;Hancock 1993;Stone et al 2011;Whitehead 1991).…”