Rental increase social sector per 1 July 2020

22-4-2020 — 

In the Netherlands, it is standard practice to implement the annual rent increase per 1 July.

Social sector
Do you have a home with a maximum of 142 points (per 1 July 2020) and a bare rental price of a maximum of € 737.14? Then the house is in the social sector. If you rent out in the social sector, you must notify your tenants at least 2 months before the start of the rent increase. In the event of a rent increase as of 1 July, you must therefore inform the tenants about this no later than 30 April. You can do this later in the free sector.

In the social sector, the government determines the maximum rent increase. If your tenant's income in 2018 was less than € 43,574.00, you may increase with a maximum of 5.1%. An increase is only calculated on the bare rent! If your tenant has a higher income, you may increase by a maximum of 6.6%.

Free liberated sector
Do you rent out a house in the free sector? Then, depending on the rent increase clause in your rental agreement, you are reasonably free to determine the rent increase yourself. We generally follow the CBS inflation rate. That is currently not known, we will inform you about this later.

Increase of rental prices during the corona crisis
We are now in the midst of a crisis whose duration and outcome are unclear. Tenants who lose their jobs or lose income may not be able to afford the rent increase. Or don't want to pay it. Moreover, there is a risk at this time that your tenants give notice if you increase (too much). So ask yourself carefully who your tenant is, what his / her financial situation is and whether your rental price may be too high after the increase. If your tenant leaves, you may have vacancy for a longer period of time.

Moral appeal to landlords
In the media and politics, calls are now being made regularly to moderate rents in order not to further bring tenants in trouble as we are in the midst of the corona crisis. A "moral appeal" is made on landlords to show social behavior to their tenants.
The opposition parties in the House of Representatives have tabled an amendment proposing that no evictions should take place (mainly due to late payments) and that rents should also be frozen. According to them, there should be a maximum adjustment of the rental price to the inflation rate. The amendment has been tabled to the Emergency law for temporary extension of temporary leases to allow a temporary freeze of rental prices. This applies to both the social sector and the free sector and is an emergency measure. The minister was opposed, but the Senate decided otherwise. All this needs to be worked out in more detail. At the moment (April 22) no further information is known.

Do I have to increase on July 1?
You do not necessarily have to increase on July 1. You can also skip it for a year, you can do it at a later time in the year (provided you increase at most once a year) or with a lower percentage than allowed.

Do we do the financial management for you? Then we will contact you and will arrange this for you. If you are the financial manager of the house, you are responsible for this yourself.