What the Netherlands can learn from Belgium’s housing policy

The housing crisis is central in the run-up to the Dutch parliamentary elections. More and more voters are asking themselves whether they will still be able to find an affordable home. The housing shortage and high prices are not unique to the Netherlands—other European countries are also struggling with this issue. Still, things are not going equally badly everywhere, and solutions may be closer than we think.

Concrete European examples show that successful housing solutions do not need to come from Brussels, but rather from comparing policies and learning from one another. According to Piet Eichholtz, professor of real estate finance at Maastricht University, the Netherlands should therefore also put on a “European lens.”

In his analysis in De Limburger, Eichholtz argues that the Netherlands could learn a thing or two from Belgian housing policy. Our southern neighbors allow more space for residential building land, which leads to less scarcity and lower prices than on our side of the border. The lower mortgage interest rates, due to greater competition, also make a difference. What further role Europe can play in solving the housing crisis is discussed in the opinion piece.

Eichholtz: “The EU itself has little say on housing policy. It is a matter for national, provincial, and municipal governments, and each country solves the problems in its own way. But that also means there are lessons to be learned from the successes and failures of the different choices other countries make with their housing policies.”

 Read the entire article (in Dutch) on the website of Studio Europa Maastricht.