Amsterdam fines landlords for buying houses to rent

The municipality of Amsterdam imposed fines of around 22,000 euros on six owners for violating the prohibition on buying homes in order to rent them in the first four years after the acquisition, a rule that seeks to fight against the housing crisis in Netherlands.

The restriction for purchase protection has been applied since April 1, which affects six out of ten existing homeowners in Amsterdam and means that anyone who buys a house that has a WOZ value – official property value – up to 512,000 euros (533,000 euros as of this year), you must live in it for the first four years after purchase.

Since the regulation came into force, the municipality has already imposed fines of around 22,000 euros per home on a total of six owners, according to a statement from the Dutch capital city council.

In addition, they were also imposed a kind of “coercive fine”that is, those who continue to violate this rule will be subject to additional sanctions of 43,000 euros.

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“With the so-called purchase protection, we prevent investors from buying homes and asking for very high rents. And we make sure homes stay on the market for new buyers.”says the note, which indicates that the verification of compliance with the standard was made at the end of 2022.

As an example, the municipality pointed out that a couple paid 2,000 euros a month, without expenses, for a small two-bedroom house in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, the western suburbs of the city, with a deposit of 3,000 euros. paid to the agency, which kept the name of the actual owner anonymous.

For another house in the west of Amsterdam, a couple of foreign students had to pay 2,000 euros per month, without expenses included, and a deposit of 2,000 euros, in addition to a fee of 2,000 euros for “mediation” to the agency that managed the rental, the latter is illegal in the Netherlands.

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In two other illegally rented houses, the tenants received the promise that they could buy the house in which they lived after three years of rent, and they had to pay 27,000 euros and 30,000 euros respectively to the owners, which would supposedly be deducted from the price. for sale at the time of purchase.

The five largest cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven) have some form of buy-to-let ban, which is based on a change in national law that came into force in January that allows cities to designate areas where investors could be prevented from buying houses just to rent, not live.

The rule in Amsterdam includes some exceptions: the property can be rented to close relatives or on a temporary basis when the owner needs to leave for certain specific periods of time, such as for long international trips or work abroad, but in any case, requires a permit from the municipality.

Source: EFE

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