The Housing Monitor 2024 exposes the dire situation for young people and students in the housing market. Instead of the promised 2,500 new student housing units by 2026, only 136 are being built. Meanwhile, many existing student houses are disappearing. STIP has provided an action plan to provide more housing in the short term.
Barely any building plans for student housing The Housing Monitor 2024 sets out in figures the state of the Delft housing market and what we will be building for in the coming years. Delft has an ambition to add 15,000 housing units until 2040. Specifically for students, the municipality plans to add 3,500 housing units until 2030, with 2,500 to 2026. This housing monitor only shows plans for 136 housing units until 2026. In short, the ambition for new construction does not look promising. Enough reason for STIP to express great concern about failing to meet that commitment.
Existing student houses disappear The stock of student housing is going to shrink enormously in the coming years. STIP asked questions to the municipality just before the summer about the progress on student housing, revealing that fifty student houses will disappear within now and the next two years. In addition, DUWO will renovate its existing stock, starting with 375 houses near Roland Holstlaan in the summer of 2024. These will be temporarily uninhabitable as a result. In the absence of new student housing, up to at least 800 houses will temporarily disappear from DUWO's stock. In the area of temporary student housing, the permits for Aan 't Verlaat and Abswoudse Bloeit also seem set to expire in the coming years.
On top of the existing shortage of student housing, the existing stock will only deteriorate in the coming years. STIP believes that the municipality cannot stand by and watch this shortage grow and must wait for the new construction plans to start only after 2026. In the debate we therefore argued for more housing in the short term.
Decline in shared student housing In particular, shared student houses will disappear in the coming years, due to new national legislation. In new construction in the coming years, only studios will come in return, because these are more profitable for developers. STIP is concerned about the balance between shared student houses and studios. Living with other housemates is important for the social development of young people and combats loneliness. STIP has repeatedly sounded the alarm about this to the municipality, and to the House of Representatives.
Distressing housing perspective of the youth With the Housing Vision, STIP has already advocated addressing the distressing perspective of young people on the housing market. This target group has an extremely low success rate. The Woonmonitor does not say a single word about this target group. STIP believes it is crucial that an approach is taken to help this group find housing.
Time for action! So this was reason enough for STIP to call for an urgent plan for more student and youth housing in the short term.
With a motion, we ensured that an action plan to come back to the City Council by March 2025 at the latest, for both permanent and temporary solutions, for new construction and in the existing stock. In a few months, STIP will enter the conversation again about the additional steps to be taken in the short term for this urgent problem.
Do you have any questions about this or cool ideas about this topic? Send Lisanne a message! STIP also has a Housing Thinktank to join. About once a month we meet to think about housing in Delft. Who knows, we might see you soon!
