Reflections: De mismatch op de woningmarkt

Buying your own home? For many young buyers, still a distant dream. In 2024, the average personal contribution for homebuyers under 35 was €91,000. Without wealthy parents, significant home equity, or a well-filled savings account, there’s often only one option left: renting. But on the private market, renting is often even more unaffordable in the long run. During Go Short 2025, ACN will explore the housing market mismatch with an expert, using three short films as a starting point.

Unaffordable rent
Business as Usual (2024) takes a satirical look at Lisbon’s housing market—now the third most expensive city in the world—where rent prices far exceed the average monthly salary. The Spanish film An Awesome Flat (2024) presents an open house for a “super apartment” that turns out to be nothing more than a claustrophobic 20-square-meter box. The Dutch short film 955,- Excl. (2024) offers a glimpse into a grueling room viewing in Amsterdam. How much of herself must the insecure student Ninthe give up to secure an 8-square-meter room for nearly a thousand euros?

Mismatch
With the Affordable Rent Act, the Dutch government aims to protect tenants from excessive rent prices and make the rental market more accessible. However, an unintended consequence was that landlords started selling off their properties in large numbers, further worsening the rental housing shortage.

So how can we truly address the dire lack of affordable rental homes? Is “build, build, build” really the answer, or does Dutch housing policy need a radical overhaul? Together with a housing market expert, we will analyze these three short films and discuss the ongoing mismatch between supply and demand, as well as between policy and reality.

This is a program in collaboration with Architectuurcentrum Nijmegen