Wet Betaalbare Huur

Consequences of the Affordable Rent Act

On Tuesday, June 25, 2024, the Senate approved this controversial bill. With the implementation of this law, the existing housing valuation system in the social rental sector will become mandatory for rental values up to €1,123 (186 points). Tenants renting within this price range will have access to the Rent Tribunal for disputes regarding rent prices, service costs, and/or property maintenance.

“The regulation will apply to new rental contracts as long as necessary and will be evaluated every five years.”

Source: Senate

What does the Affordable Rent Act mean for you?

This means that when signing a new rental agreement, you must take this law into account. You do not have to navigate this alone—we are here to advise you.
For every tenant change or lease termination, we already provide you with a rental advisory report along with a points assessment. This process will remain unchanged. In some cases, our recommendation will be to upgrade the property, while in others, we may advise selling the property.

We anticipate that the latter recommendation will be given more frequently than before, especially since the option for temporary rentals has been significantly restricted.

Alternative Options

The sales market is currently strong. You may want to expedite the (vacant) sale of your property. At Randstadwonen Beheer BV, we offer the following options:

  • Relocating the tenant and selling the property vacant.
  • Selling the property to the tenant.
  • Selling property/properties as an investment.

The costs of these different processes vary and depend, among other factors, on the current tenant. If you are interested, we are happy to provide a free cost estimate.

Affordable Rent Act: Difference Between Independent and Non-Independent Housing

Earlier, we informed our clients about the Affordable Rent Act (WBH), which came into effect on July 1. In addition to adjusting the free-sector threshold from 144 to 186 points (€1,157.95), the Housing Valuation System (WWS) has also been modified for both independent and non-independent housing. For non-independent housing, this is the first adjustment to the point system in decades, whereas the WWS for independent housing was adjusted annually. As a result, the impact on non-independent housing is more significant.

Now that we are a week in, we have had several opportunities to apply the new WWS in practice. So far, the outcomes have not necessarily been worse for landlords. We would like to walk you through two examples:

In both cases, the new WWS yields significantly better results. The independent housing unit also moves into the new free sector, partly thanks to its energy label A and the increased weighting of the label (48 out of 192 points). In the case of the non-independent housing unit, there are many adjustments compared to the old system, including the recent inclusion of the EPA. Notably, the valuation of (shared) outdoor space plays a role, contributing 9.74 out of 52 points, as well as the WOZ value, which accounts for 12 out of 52 points.