Good news for long term renters

Terms such as “starter” and “transfer” have of course long been established in our language in and around the housing market. And we’ve also known the term “skewed tenant” for a while now: someone who occupies a social rental home, but actually earns too much for it. For some time we also have the ‘expensive tenants’. These are people who pay a lot of rent each month for their house or apartment, but are unable to buy a home because of the strict mortgage standards. In turn, they earn too little for that. They pay more rent than they would have to pay for the mortgage. And because they have to pay substantial amounts in rent, they can hardly save for a purchase in the future. There is now good news for these so-called expensive tenants. Three mortgage lenders (ING, BLG Wonen and Aegon) have started a pilot project in which those concerned can obtain a mortgage up to the NHG limit: €355,000. Later Florius (subsidiary of ABN Amro) will also join. The borrowing standards are not expanded, but the mortgage lenders look at the long-term payment behavior of the applicants. For example, they must have paid the rent for at least 36 months without falling into arrears. They must also not have cut back on savings during that period. Their income must be stable and high enough to pay the housing costs without having to use the savings pot. NHG is the guarantor. The trial runs for two years or until 1,000 mortgage loans are reached, says the chairman of the National Mortgage Guarantee. If earlier in the course of two years it appears that this meets a great need, they also want to take further action sooner. It is possible that more lenders will then be able to join. In my opinion, something like this can certainly not be ruled out. The target group is large. In our country there are more than half a million households that rent in the free sector (i.e. above €1,200). Of these, 61% spend more than a third of their income on rent. They have long fallen between the cracks because they earn too much to rent socially and too little to buy a starter home. It is not surprising that they are sometimes angry because they can pay €1,300 in rent, but cannot take out a mortgage with a monthly charge of €800. The only downside to this trial is that it will make the housing market a little busier again. And if more houses are not added, then unfortunately that will also have a price-increasing effect.