Flemish minister presents plan to tackle high vacancy rates in social housing
Flemish minister for housing Hans Bonte has drawn up a plan to tackle the high vacancy rates in social housing. Currently, 11 per cent of all social housing in Flanders is vacant, while almost 210,000 families are on the waiting list. The minister amongst others wants to simplify the allocation procedure, provide better guidance to prospective tenants and speed up renovations.
Today, 11 per cent of all social housing in Flanders is vacant, which is a thorn in the side of many prospective tenants who have been on the waiting list for a long time. There are two types of vacancy. There is temporary vacancy or frictional vacancy, which is the vacancy between two rental periods. Then there is structural vacancy, which lasts longer than six months due to, for example, renovation or demolition of a home.
Flemish minister for housing Hans Bonte, together with the umbrella organisation of Flemish housing companies Initia and the Flemish Tenants' Platform, has developed a plan to reduce vacancy as much as possible.
To tackle frictional vacancy, the allocation procedure will be amended. From now on, several prospective tenants will be able to be contacted simultaneously when a property becomes available. This was not the case in the past, as prospective tenants ran the risk of being penalised if they did not respond to the offer. Even if the property had already been allocated to someone else.
“An absurd arrangement that made the search for a new social tenant take longer than necessary and unjustly penalised prospective tenants,” stated Bonte. “When a property becomes vacant, we need to ensure that it can be re-let as quickly as possible.”
In addition, prospective tenants who are eligible for a rental property will now also receive faster and better guidance. “We see that prospective tenants today are often surprised when they are offered a property. They are given a limited time to make a decision and terminate their rental contract. This means that they have to refuse an offer, for example because they temporarily have to pay double rent. This creates too much uncertainty about their purchasing power, which is why we are addressing this issue.”
The government also wants to limit vacancy rates during renovations. From now on, certain renovations will be able to be carried out without tenants having to leave their homes. If tenants do have to temporarily leave their homes during (major) renovations, modular units will be used. These will be ready-made, compact homes. This will reduce the number of other social housing units that need to be kept vacant.
#FlandersNewsService | Flemish minister for housing Hans Bonte © BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM
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