“No place in the city for people who grew up here”

According to The Hague councilor, Martijn Bolster, PvdA in NRC of May 15, 2024.
Illustration of the fact that young locals no longer can continue to live in the city.

 

From NRC May 15, 2024
By editor Jos Verlaan

 

For whom are the houses in The Hague?

 

“Expats push up prices and make housing unaffordable,”

says the Hague Housing Councilor. The municipality wants a “brake”.

 

The Hague wants fewer expats, international students and migrant

workers to come to the city.

(….)

According to councilor Martijn Bolster (Housing, PvdA), this market is increasingly becoming a displacement market, which “is only about capital power”.

(…)

Balster: “It cannot be the case that there is no longer a place in the city for the people who grew up here due to an unlimited influx of expats and migrant workers. With the message that people with a normal income can no longer commit to their own city, the question arises whether The Hague can still handle the growth of expats and labor migrants.”

 

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So much for the newspaper report.
Amsterdam is not The Hague; in terms of pressure on the housing market, it is much worse here. Yet we hardly hear from the Amsterdam municipal council about the fact that a large part of the local youth cannot stay here. It has not yet gone beyond the priority points for youth housing for young people who have lived here continuously for more than 6 years in the past 10 years and for those moving up the housing ladder.