Bijlage 4 - Thesis Structural housing vacancy in the municipality of Ww

If the owner does not cooperate with a conversation (does not appear or cancels several times), the Municipality can still make a vacancy decision. The Lw does not specify guidelines for the content of the vacancy decision. (VRO, 2024a).

Figure 3.1 Image from a vacant house Retrieved from Broeke (2025)

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

3.1.2. Temporary Letting Under the Lw, the Municipality can grant permits to property owners for the temporary rental of houses (since the 1st of July 20204, the Fixed Rental Contracts Act has come into force, making fixed rental contracts the norm. This does not affect temporary letting under the Lw.). No ordinance needs to be adopted for this purpose. In every Municipality property owners can apply for this permit (VRO, 2024a).

3.1.2.1. This may include the following housing categories • •

• •

Accommodation in a building which, according to its construction or design is, intended for group accommodation, care or nursing, lodging, administration and/or education purposes or for a combination of these purposes; Accommodation in a house intended for sale which: • Never been occupied, or; • At least twelve months prior the property was last completely unoccupied or, if the property as a whole was ready for occupation within a period of twelve months prior to that time, during the remaining part of the latter period, has been occupied continuously, wholly or mainly, by the owner, or; • During a period of ten years prior to the time of application for the permit, has not been let wholly or mainly as living accommodation for more than a continues period of three years; Living space in a house intended for rental while applying for a permit intended for demolition or renovation; Housing in a house intended for sale (Lw, 2024, art. 5:15 lid 1).

3.1.2.2. The permit will only be granted if • • • • •

The building or house, before the letting a permit was asked for is vacant; That the owner will not make the building or house serve public housing in any other way; The owner demonstrates that the accommodation to be let will be sufficiently occupied; The owner demonstrates that the renovation will be of a drastic nature and that the demolition or renovation will take place within a reasonable period of time; The owner has not obtained more than one outstanding permit to let under the Lw. An owner can have a maximum of two valid permits at the same time (Lw, 2024, art. 5:15 lid 3).

3.1.2.3. The following rules apply for temporary letting A permit is valid for up to two years and can be renewed annually up to a maximum of five to ten year depending on the type of building. After expiry, the owner can only apply for a new permit for the same building after five years. By a sale of the house, affixed term of five years applies without renewal. With this permit there is no rent protection, allowing the landlord to terminate the lease onesidedly. There is a minimum rental period of six months for the landlord. And a three month notice for the tenant. If the permit expires but the tenant stays with approval of the landlord than the rental agreement becomes an open-ended contract with matching rent protection. The Municipality determines the maximum rent, except for owner occupied houses. The maximum

Earlier in the part of 3.1.1.2 Vacancy ordinance under Conversation with the owner, it was also mentioned they could use the vacant house as loaned rental (anti-squatting), this is not the same as temporary letting. With loaned rental, there is no rental agreement, but a loan agreement where the property is temporary free of charge. However, an allowance may be requested for service or administration costs. There is no renter’s protection, and no minimum term for agreement so it can be terminated with a short notice (VRO, 2024a).

3.1.3. Future Plans for the Vacancy Act From the evaluation of the Lw (2024) did the minister of Housing and Planning, Mona Keijzer, make a letter to parliament with a response to the evaluation. Within this she concludes that there may be some future changes on the Lw. Where she is adopting the recommendations from the evaluation and is working on a bill what will tighten the Lw, with additional instruments. This tightening of the Lw is structurally anchoring what can already be temporarily done in Amsterdam and Utrecht with their experiment (VRO, 2024b). Also, the draft decree on strengthening the direction of public housing includes an obligation for municipalities to describe policy measures for better utilisation of the existing stock in the public housing programme. If municipalities have

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rent cannot be higher even if both landlord and tenant agree. The maximum rent is determined by the Housing Valuation System (continued as: WWS). Municipalities have to grant a permit if the legal requirements are met (VRO, 2024a)

a vacancy ordinance, they can indicate in the public housing programme which instruments will be deployed for that. If they do not have a vacancy ordinance, they are encouraged to describe what other means they use to combat vacancy (VRO, 2024b). And lastly based on these intentions and the advice, she sees no need to implement a vacancy tax. Only if the new policy intentions do not lead to results will this further be considered (VRO, 2024b).

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

3.2. Housing Act

3.3. Squatting and Vacancy Act

3.4. Crisis and Recovery Act

The primarily focus of the Housing Act is to ensure a balanced and equitable distribution of housing space. This does not directly influence the Housing vacancy but can help prevent or reduce housing vacancy. This can be done with the housing regulation what may include;

The Squatting and Vacancy Act as mentioned before was there before the as is now known Lw. The Act is still in place but does not have anything really written of importance for vacancy written in it. It is still stated that Squatting is illegal to do in the Netherlands. This has been amended in the Act and now refers to the Criminal code. Where it stated in Article 138a, Lid 1 of the criminal code that; “He who unlawfully enters or unlawfully stays in a dwelling or building, the use of which has been terminated by the rightful owner, shall, as guilty of squatting, be punished with imprisonment of not more than one year or a fine of the third category.” (WvS, 2025, art. 2:138a lid 1)

The Crisis and Recovery Act (Chw) was introduced in 2010 as its main purpose to accelerate largescale development projects and economic recovery. As already can be read in chapter 3.1 Vacancy Act, there is also a bit already mentioning the Chw were parts of this law already become embedded in the Lw. And in 2021 Amsterdam and a bit later Utrecht started using the Chw with an experiment together with the Lw.

•

Rules about allocation of rental properties and the urgency order for house seekers. These rules can have influence on how fast the vacant house can be redistributed.

•

Introducing a permit to modify housing: for example, withdrawing or merging living space, switching to renting room or splitting living spaces. This can prevent vacancy by the merging or withdrawing of living spaces, where municipalities can have requirement from the owners to prevent vacancy.

•

•

Measures to prevent or limit tourist rentals. This can prevent that houses will be vacant for a longer period of time from being converted to short-stay rentals. The establishment of buyout protection to stop home being bought up. This can prevent speculation of vacancy by requiring that the bought-up homes to be actually occupied. (Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties [BZK], 2024d)

Since the 1st of January 2024, the Chw is taken up into the Environmental Act. This act helps with the vacancy ordinance to speed up the process for the obligation to report and adds the possibility to forced letting in the ‘escalation ladder’ that already is a part of the vacancy ordinance. Municipalities can part take in the experiment if they have been added for now only Amsterdam and Utrecht are in it. However, a few other municipalities (The Hague, Tilburg, Etc.) are waiting to be added to the experiment, this is done through the ministry. And is this Chw through the transitional right regulated under Article 23.3 of the Environmental Act (VRO, 2024a).

The possibility of this experiment of the Chw compared to the normal Lw is shown in table 3.1.

Vacancy Act (Lw)

Possibilities experiment Crisis and Recovery Act (Chw)

Obligation to report

6 Months

3 Months

Conversation with owner

3 Months

2 Months

Deadline for putting into use for Not possible occupancy, following decision

Minimum of 1 Month

Impose rent

Not possible

Possible in the decision

Obligation to permit temporary letting under the Vacancy Act

Not possible

For Vacancy with demolition or renovation

Table 3.1 Comparison of Lw in combination with the Chw and without. Retrieved from Handreiking Evaluatie van de Leegstandwet (2024), by VRO, 2024a. Translated/ Recreated by (de Bresser, 2025).

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

3.5. Landlords Good Practices Act The Landlords Good Practices Act is designed to protect tenants from unfair rental practices. It offers tenants protection and gives clarity to landlord: what is allowed and what is not? There are additional rules to protect migrant workers from abuses. Are tenants and landlord unable to work it out together, than the Municipality, if necessary, impose a fine on the landlord, for example (BZK, 2024a). The Act contains rules about financial matters, about written information that should be received from a landlord and about how a landlord should behave. The financial matters are mostly that the landlord can ask for a maximum of 2 months bare rent as a deposit. That if the landlord works with an estate agent, the landlord pays the mediation fee himself, not the tenant. And if the landlord charges service cost, then the landlord needs to give an annual statement of these costs (BZK, 2024a). The rental agreements must be in writing, only having a verbal agreement is not allowed. In the written information it must also include other important information that goes with renting the property such as; The property is used as agreed upon. The landlord only is allowed to enter the property with permission, with exceptions such as emergencies and immediate repairs. The types of tendency agreements and corresponding rent and rent protection.

Who is responsible for repairs the tenant or the landlord. When it is possible to approach the Rent Commission or the subdistrict court. Information about the amount and repayment of the deposit. Where it is possible to go for questions about the property that is being rented. The contact details of the Municipality’s contact point if it is impossible to work things out between

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tenant and landlord. And lastly an annual overview of service costs, if these are being charged (BZK, 2024a). Lastly in the Act how a landlord should behave, the landlord is not allowed to discriminate and/or intimidate. To prevent (unconscious) discrimination, a landlord needs to report how the selection is for a property. This can be done in an (online) advertisement or offer. If the property, then goes to someone than the landlord needs to explain why that tenant was chosen. Also, a landlord should not intimidate. They may not threaten to terminate the lease because the tenant complains too much. Entering the house without permission or cutting off the gas/water/ electricity is also not allowed (BZK, 2024a). The Landlords Good Practices Act is also applicable if people rent under the Lw then the landlord will have to apply for a rental permit first, this is broader and aimed at all forms of renting. If the landlord wants to rent out the property with a limited rent and lease protection under the Lw, the landlord will then also have to apply for a permit under the Lw to do so (Wever et al., 2024).

3.6. Affordable Rent Act

3.7. Buyout Protection

The aim of the Affordable Rent Act is to ensure greater availability of affordable accommodation. In other words: to ensure that, in more cases, the rent matches the quality of the accommodation provided. This quality is determined by a straightforward point system (WWS). Where social housing has a maximum of 143 points and thus has a limited rent. And now for the mid-priced rental segment, is accommodation scoring between 144 and 186, this now have also a fixed rent ceiling. For that more affordable accommodation should become available. And accommodations scoring above 187 points, or more is the private sector with no rent ceiling (BZK, 2024b).

The buyout protection as mentioned in 3.2 Housing Act, ensures that houses in soughtafter areas cannot simply be bought up for renting. This way, more owner-occupied houses remain available for people to live in (BZK, 2024c).

How the Affordable Rent Act has an influence on the Lw is because of some limited housing demand and speculation. With house that were vacant because of too high asking prices, should now be reduced to the points the house has. It also makes renting more attractive for people by ensuring a stable rental pricing. This Act can also have a negative effect on the Lw depending on the landlord’s reaction. Because some may choose to sell properties rather than continuing renting them under regulated prices. What brings more houses into the buying and selling segment than the renting segment which in turn can again get a big gap between the sectors (EenVandaag, 2024).

More and more people are struggling to find an affordable home to buy. To give these people, including first-time buyers and middle-income earners, a Municipality can choose to introduce a buyout protection. This can be done in neighbourhoods where there is a scarcity of cheap and mediumpriced houses to buy or where the liveability of a neighbourhood is under pressure due to buying up houses for rent (BZK, 2024c). In the Municipality of Waalwijk the buyout protection is for houses up to €300.000, - in the neighbourhoods of: Centrum Waalwijk – Besoyen, Antoniusparochie, Zanddonk, Meerdijk, Bloemenoord, Baardwijk. And in Landgoed Driessen, and Capelle / Nieuwe Vaart is the buyout protection for houses up to €355.000, - (Gemeente Waalwijk, 2023). However, there are a few exceptions where no matter the value of the house the Municipality must approve a permit for renting. This is if it is being rented to family, it is a part of a retail, office, or commercial building. Or it is going to be temporary rented, where the owner has lived in the house for at least one year (BZK, 2024c). The buyout protect has a small indirect influence in the prevention of vacancy and renting and prevent displacement of the firsttime buyer in the housing market (Dordrecht, 2021).

The buyout protection can have also the indirect influence in the prevention of houses being bought up by investors who will leave them empty waiting for the values to rise. 35

Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

3.8. Conclusion The re-occupation of structural vacant residential buildings to housing is influenced by various legal and policy frameworks in the Netherlands. Like it was mentioned in the text the Vacancy Act is the most important law that can influence vacancy. This Law enables municipalities to regulate vacancy by having the vacancy ordinance that includes the obligation to report, engage in conversations with owners about the use, and if necessary, nominate a user. However, to make use of this the Municipality must introduce a vacancy ordinance. Additionally, there is also the temporary letting that permits short-term letting. This can happen in any Municipality there is no need to have a municipal policy in place.

Together all these framework influence in some way the re-occupation of vacant residential buildings to housing. For future developments there are possibilities to have the experiment of the Crisis and Recovery Act be removed and have it included in the Vacancy Act, for all municipalities that have a vacancy ordinance. To further strengthen and enhance the effectiveness of vacancy management in the Netherlands.

Other Laws also play a role in the vacancy management. Where the Housing Act indirectly address vacancy by preventing speculation, using the housing regulation. The Squatting and Vacancy Act has already everything regarding vacancy in the Vacancy Act but specify for the squatting that it is forbidden to do so. The Crisis and Recovery Act makes sure for now that Amsterdam and Utrecht can speed up the process and have a more strict vacancy ordinance. Further the Landlords Good Practices Act, ensures fair rental practices for the landlord and tenants. The Affordable Rent act makes sure that properties are rented out with fair pricing in the social and middle sector. The Landlords Good Practices Act and the Affordable rent act, can play a role for some landlords not being willing to rent out their building because they have less of a free say and need more on paper, and cannot determine their own rental prices for the social and middle sector.

Figure 3.2 Image from vacant houses. Retrieved from Van den Heuvel (2025).

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4. Structural Housing Vacancy: Causes and Current Approaches Within this chapter the contributing factors to housing vacancy is explored. Looking at multiple reasons why people could keep their house vacant. As well as in this chapter it is looked at how the Municipality of Waalwijk currently address the housing vacancy.

4.1. Contributing Factors Various factors can contribute to housing vacancy outside of the different vacancies there are. These various factors of housing vacancy can also be seen as a cause. So, what can be a cause of structural housing vacancy.

4

The ministry of Housing and spatial planning has made an evaluation of the Vacancy Act as the experimental provision in the Crisis and Recovery Act (passed into the Environmental Act on 1st of January 2024), which adds more instruments to the Vacancy Act. In addition, the study includes an exploration of the desires for and possibilities of a possible vacancy tax. In this evaluation of the Vacancy Act, they also mentioned possible causes for vacant properties. These possible causes are:

• • • • •

Administrative vacancy (the property is being used but is not registered as such); Problems in the family atmosphere: divorce, an inheritance being settled, etc; Physical interventions: conversion, demolition-new construction, etc; Objections from local residents to a physical intervention; A property is held while the resident is absent: an elderly person moves to a nursing home, the resident ends up in detention, etc; • Use as a second home; • Landlord lets a room-let property ‘empty’ step by step by not looking for a new tenant when a room occupant leaves, with a view to eventual sell off in single units; • Vacancy is fiscally more attractive than use; • Owner waits for permits; • Speculation; • Lack of market demand (in the current market, respondents do not see this occurring) (VRO, 2024a). The handbook by Camstra et al. (2022) also puts down several different causes as mentioned in chapter 2.1 Defining housing vacancy, these causes also include a small explanation of why it is included as a cause.

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

•

• •

•

•

•

•

Limited demand for housing: this is one of the first forms people may think about. Houses that are vacant because there is no demand for them. In the current times, this is not the case in the vast majority of the Netherlands. Restructuring vacancy: This is for the run-up to demolition-new construction or renovation of a house. Some of this vacancy is unavoidable. Bridging: This is the form of vacancy that happens mostly during friction or mutation vacancy. This is temporary vacancy between moving, renovation, or change of tenants where contracts do not match. Sometimes this may take longer because of intensive renovation or financial problems or because contractors are not available. Partially unused housing: It can happen that a house is not used as living space. This can happen in the case of a house above a store that is used as storage space, It can also go unused because the residential building requires construction. Also people may keep the house as a second home, staying there only shortly. Or a couple that has started to live together and still may keep both homes as a fallback option. Administrative vacancy: A house that is vacant on paper but in practice it is in use. This may be because of subletting, or it is owned by someone that has multiple houses. Or someone is not register because they want to stay off grid. Or that the house is used for another purpose.

Lodging use and holiday rentals: when a house is used for short-term rentals. This may include, lodging use for seasonal work, when a house is usually used a fixed part of the year. When a house is permanently used for holiday rentals, it will be administrative vacant, but a house only rented out in the high season and occupied in the other time will not be visible as vacant. Speculation: Buying can be, not always, be combined with rental. But if the owner does not want tenants the house remains empty. Too high of a rent can also cause speculative vacancy. Too many parties have entered the market, causing a sudden oversupply in the high-end segment of housing (Camstra et al., 2022).

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From these lists of causes of vacancy there are again differences and similarities to see what factors contribute to the housing vacancy it is best to have one list of causes. These causes will be the most noticeable and more applicable for this research on structural housing vacancy. These causes are; Administrative vacancy, Bridging, Family circumstances, Physical interventions, secondary and seasonal use, and Speculation. In table 4.1 it is also included if these causes will be encountered how much of an influence can the Municipality have on this with for example seeing if they can speed up permits procedures that are in waiting for renovations for example, or if the Municipality can be more stimulating when talking with the homeowner, etc. This will be shown with a 0 for no influence from the Municipality is possible, a + if a bit would be possible. And a ++ if the Municipality can almost fully bring it back to the housing market with their influence, or make sure it does not appear vacant anymore.

The factors, causes Administrative vacancy Bridging

4.2. Current Municipal Approach The Municipality already have several methods to identify and address housing vacancy. While these approaches provide some insights into structural housing vacancy, they are not being used to its full potential. First of there is the liveability, Surveillance and enforcement department (continued as: LTH) that can get called out into the Municipality to check on vacancy. Next up there is a tool that is the Geoportal, an internal portal of maps. That shows in one of the layers vacancy. And lastly, the Municipality started sending letters to people whose address seems vacant in the administration. These three will be explored a bit more in the following section.

Amount of influence ++

Explanation

+

Limited influence, can encourage temporary rental, or speed up renovation permits.

This is a strong influence, where the Municipality can contact the owner and correct registration errors.

Family circumstances

0

No influence, this is divorces, inheritance, etc here the Municipality has no control.

Physical interventions

+

Limited influence, can speed up permit procedures and offer subsidies or loans, but cannot speed up the renovation itself.

secondary and seasonal use

+

Limited influence, can discourage second home with a higher tax or make more specific zoning regulations.

Speculation

+

Limited influence, can only try to stimulate to bring the house back into use.

4.2.1. Enforcement The LTH department conducts on-site inspections in response to notifications being made. These inspections occur primarily when a house has been vacant for an extended amount of time and shows signs of deterioration or if disturbances arise at the location. And at that point it cannot be seen as suitable to live in so can you then still categorise it under a structural vacant house. (S. Brachthäuser & M. Korthagen, personal communication, February 18, 2025). To check if we are at the sight if the house is vacant or not, we have an iPad application that allows us to check if someone is registered at the address. (S. Brachthäuser & M. Korthagen, personal communication, February 18, 2025). Not everyone within the LTH department & Municipality knows of this app because it is not that regularly used. To see how this app works was unsuccessful during the meeting as if failed to open. What could be helpful what was also discussed with S. Brachthäuser & M. Korthagen was, when the people from the LTH department identify a potential vacant property during their inspections, there is currently no designated system or platform for them to formally report suspected vacancies to. While the Municipality does have a notifying system (Fixi) from residence to the Municipality if a lamppost is broken, or there are loose stones on the pavement, litter, etc.

(Gemeente Waalwijk, 2024). the residence can then make a notification on it and then someone from the LTH department will forward the notification to the right people to see if the problem can be fixed. This is also a suggestion that was discussed that residents can also make a notification about vacancy on here.

Table 4.1 Influence the Municipality can have on vacancy causes. Created by (de Bresser, 2025).

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

4.2.2. Geoportal For the internal geoportal they have multiple maps with there in different layers to show things within the Municipality. One of these maps is Property Valuation (continued as: WOZ) within this map there is the layer of Vacancy. This layer can be split between housing vacancy and business vacancy. In Figure 12.1 (will be visible in the appendix 12.2 (restricted access)) is the map of housing vacancy shown of the geoportal. Within this map there is shown the whole Municipality of Waalwijk with the district division. With in that map the houses that are vacant are visible according to the geoportal. These spots for the houses are shown more clearly in Figure 12.2 up and till 12.4 (will be visible in the appendix 12.2 (restricted access)) where the districts are shown one by one. However, this is not a good map to show where the housing vacancy is because, this map is not up to date, the last time it was changed was in 2018. This does thus not help in knowing where the now structural housing vacancy is. For visualisation in Figure 4.1 up to 4.3 is the different districts of the Municipality of Waalwijk visible. What is also shown in the appendix 12.2 but then with the vacant houses in it.

Figure 12.2 for now figure 4.1 Is the district of Waspik that according to the basic registration of addresses and buildings (continued as: BAG) has 2267 Houses (BAG Internal information Waalwijk, 2025), if then is looked at the data of CBS about the district of Waspik it says for 2024 that Waspik has about 40 houses vacant (CBS, 2024). If only counting the yellow indicated houses (visible in the appendix 12.2 (restricted access)) within the district of Waspik it already comes to about +/- 70 houses with a quick count. So, comparing the vacancy with the CBS and Geoportal it is not in line with each other so there really need to be looked at what is actually vacant. For the district of Waspik at least. In figure 4.1 it is also visible the neighbourhoods that are within the district of Waspik (the black lines). 05-06-2025 Kane de Bresser

Figure 4.1 District of Waspik. Created by (de Bresser, 2025).

Figure 4.2 District of Sprang-Capelle. Created by (de Bresser, 2025).

Figure 12.3 for now figure 4.2 is the district of Sprang-Capelle that according to the BAG has 4162 houses (BAG Internal information Waalwijk, 2025), if then is looked at the data of CBS about the district of Sprang-Capelle it says for 2024 that Sprang-Capelle has about 130 houses vacant (CBS, 2024). If only counting the yellow indicated houses (visible in the appendix 12.2 (restricted access)) within the district of Sprang-Capelle it already comes to about +/- 170 houses with a quick count. So, comparing the vacancy with the CBS and Geoportal it is not in line with each other so there really needs to be looked at what is actually vacant. For the district of Sprang-Capelle at least. In figure 4.2 it is also visible the neighbourhoods that are within the district of Sprang-Capelle (the black lines). Figure 12.4 for now figure 4.3 is the district of Waalwijk that according to the BAG has 16099 houses (BAG Internal information Waalwijk, 2025), if then is looked at the data of CBS about the district of Waalwijk it says for 2024 that Waalwijk has about 320 houses vacant (CBS, 2024). If only counting the yellow indicated houses (visible in the appendix 12.2 (restricted access)) within the district of Waalwijk it already comes to about +/400 houses with a quick count.

So, comparing the vacancy with the CBS and Geoportal it is not in line with each other so there really needs to be looked at what is actually vacant. For the district of Waalwijk at least. In figure 4.3 it is also visible the neighbourhoods that are within the district of Waalwijk (the black lines).

So, for Waspik, Sprang-Capelle and Waalwijk the quick count of just the yellow houses it is already over each thing that the CBS Vacancy monitor mentioned. And even mentioning that the data from the Geoportal is outdated looking into the CBS Vacancy monitor in 2018 where even less was vacant than in 2024. So, there is most likely all the vacant houses taken into account in the Geoportal map layer of WOZ vacancy thus also the friction, mutation, and structural vacancy but there was not a differentiate made between them. The numbers of CBS give in total 490 vacant houses for 22528 houses that are currently in the Municipality of Waalwijk. This is about 2.18% for the whole Municipality, comparing this to the whole of the Netherlands this still seemed acceptable because they say that about 2% is needed to have friction vacancy (CBS, 2024). However as stated in the letter to parliament with a response to the evaluation from Mona Keijzer. Every home is one, after all (VRO, 2024b) and thus that extra small percentage outside of the friction vacancy is of importance to someone in search of a house. If taking a look into the percentage per district Waspik has 1.76% of housing vacancy, Sprang-Capelle has 3.12% of housing vacancy and Waalwijk has 1.99% of housing vacancy. However, it is unsure if all these numbers are correct and that most could be part of friction vacancy.

Figure 4.3 District of Waalwijk. Created by (de Bresser, 2025).

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

4.2.3. Letter of Vacancy Since a year in the department of Licensing & Taxation (continued as: VBL) they have taken also own initiative to start looking into Vacancy to also see if it is accurate with the Taxes that people have to pay (R. Verbeek Schouten, personal communication, March 27, 2025). With this they created an excel document that shows all the addresses that are vacant and who the owner of the address is and how many days the place has been vacant. They gather this information using the data of the basic registration WOZ and national facilities WOZ, together with the Personal Records Database (continued as: BRP) (R. Verbeek Schouten, personal communication, March 27, 2025). And they started with sending a letter to inquire about the vacancy after three months of vacancy, quickly after that they realised that 3 months was too fast, and looking at the reasoning of renovation or demolition 6 months would also be not enough time, so it was decided that they now will inquire about the vacancy once a year (R. Verbeek Schouten, personal communication, March 27, 2025). This decision to do it once a year also fits better with the conclusion of how vacancy is defined and classified see Chapter 2. This also brings more internal importance of alignment for proper definition and understanding.

And from the replies of the vacancy letter, they make notes or get in contact with the owner about what the plan is. Were the owner can reply that the house will be renovated and that is planned to be done after a year, then someone from the team taxation makes a note of that to know that doesn‘t have to be checked in a year but in 1,5 year, to check if it is again occupied (R. Verbeek - Schouten, personal communication, March 27, 2025). To see the form the owner has to fill in is visible in appendix 12.3. 05-06-2025 Kane de Bresser

The letter is already quite detailed where they are asking the following questions with the possible answers: • If the house is currently being used? o No (and give more information), o Yes, it is being used, o There is renovation happening, (with the date it expected to be finished or lived in) o The house is for sale/rent. (With the advertisement send with it.) • Who is using the house? o The owner o The tenant, (and if they then could include their rental contract.) • If the renting out involves room-to-room rental? o Yes, (again include the rental contract.) o No • And lastly space to give extra information on the answers or house. However, these results of the vacancy letter that is being send out is only communicated with the department of VBL. And not with the people from policy social welfare domain, team housing (continued as: BSD) and LTH. And after given the letter and phone call the team of VBL also do not talk with the owners about steps, they could possibly take to get the house occupied faster (R. Verbeek - Schouten, personal communication, March 27, 2025).

4.3. Conclusion The reason of structural housing vacancy can be influenced by various factors. This depends on each person/owner of the property why they keep the property vacant. The Evaluation of the Vacancy Act from the VRO (2024a) and the handbook by Camstra et al. (2022) both give a few highlights on the causes. The causes that would be most applicable for Waalwijk for now but also for throughout the years would be Administrative vacancy, Bridging, Family circumstances, Physical interventions, secondary and seasonal use, Speculation. These factors contribute to vacancy in different ways, ranging again from friction, mutation, and structural vacancy. There is also shown in table 4.1 how much of an influence the Municipality can have on the house if it is for that reason vacant most of them has very limited influence with the exception of family circumstance where there is no influence, and Administrative vacancy where the Municipality can fix the registrations errors. The Municipality of Waalwijk currently has a few approaches to visualise or tackle housing vacancy. With the enforcement inspections, the geoportal mapping system and from the taxation department letters of vacancy. Each of these methods provide some sort of insight but also has limitations that limit some of its effectiveness.

The LTH department plays currently a minor role in how the Municipality deals with structural housing vacancy. The LTH department goes on call if a house has been vacant for an extended amount of time or starts deteriorating and if a disturbance is caused at the location. At this point, the property is no longer suitable for living, what raises its own specific strategies.

The geoportal provides the visual representation of a map showing the houses, and business that are vacant. But the Data was outdated last looked at it, making it difficult and unreliable to look at structural housing vacancy. Because there appear enough vacant houses on the list that are in the friction vacancy. And lastly, there is the Letter that is being send out for housing vacancy. The one that is most effective. This is done by the VBL department, to look at the administrative housing vacancy. This method has improved some data collection, however the happening of the Letter and the data is not really shared along departments, this limits part of the potential this method has. However, this method gives a good building point and opportunity to build further on. While these factors and these three methods contribute to the structural housing vacancy, a more internal integrated approach would help reducing the structural housing vacancy. With understanding why, the house is vacant, and improving data accuracy, communication within the Municipality but also communication to the inhabitants. This all could strengthen the current Municipality’s approaches.

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5. Tools for Mapping of Structural Vacancy in Waalwijk To really bring vacancy in to focus we need to update the tools that are being used and show the current vacancy. For the tools is meant the maps that can be used in the geoportal and the excel form that was briefly touched upon in chapter 4.2.2. and 4.2.3. Structurally vacant houses within the Municipality of Waalwijk already has a system of them being tracked to see what is vacant this is done through a letter that is being send out and an excel form what the department of VBL made. Vacant houses are also already being visualised by the geoportal. However, both of these could use some improvements. So, first there will be information on the excel work sheet on how to make it more user friendly so multiple departments can take looks at it. And For the Geoportal there will be some new layers that can be put on the maps and see if it is better to show per complex or per dot on the address.

5.1. Excel Work Sheet

5

To keep track of the housing vacancy the team of VBL made an excel sheet. This excel sheet covers everything that is needed to know what is vacant and who the vacancy letter needs to be send to. However, in this excel sheets there can be some improvements made. This is so it is easier to communicate with the other teams in the Municipality of what is happening at the structural vacant property. However, before the suggested improvements are shown it is best to show the layout of the excel how it looks now. This is done by the following table 5.1, the first row is the names of the columns to show what is in the columns, in the second row is a bit of information about the column for what it is used or what is displayed in the columns. In appendix 12.4 the tables are shown again however then in the Dutch language. From this excel sheet the first thing that was noticed that the number of days vacant was all the way at the end and can be overlooked. That is why it was decided to bring it further to the front of the sheet next to the date of vacancy seemed the most useful. Other than that, to see how many months or years it has been since vacant is difficult to see from just the number of days, so it was also decided to implement the number of months and the number of years of vacancy in the excel sheet as well.

Next up the note title will be removed, this is because the title of the notes only says when the note has been added in names of months while the date note added has the same principle but then as just numbers. Continuing on the indicator owner is down in the row’s wit just P or M if it is a business or a person. This can be shown in a clearer manner with a drop-down list, that with every address it clearly says if it is a business that is in ownership or if it is just an individual. And further on a whole new column will be added before the address column where it can right away be classified why it is vacant, the reason, or what is happening with the house. This will also be done with a drop-down list so everything stays the same and there will be less confusion between the classification. For some of these classifications extra information may is required that can thus be found in the notes in the end.

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

WOZnumber

Date entry property type

Heff. Blok. year

Code Blocking

Use Code

Description use code

Property type

Description property type

address

Residence

Date vacancy

Indicator owner

Name owner

Address owner

Residence Owner

Country Owner

Date note added

Note added by

Note title

Note text

Number of days vacant

The WOZ data identification number is shown here.

The first date the property was introduced into the housing market (year it was built or transformed to a house).

Is not of importance to see what is vacant. Is for the team of VBL.

Is not of Importance to see what is vacant. Is for the team of VBL.

Number to see in what category the property is (like housing, or industry etc.)

Gives the text corresponding with the number. Like (house serving as main residence, or House with practice space).

Number to see what kind of property it is. More specified than use code.

Gives the text to the number of what kinds of property it is. Like Apartment or corner house, row house etc.

Street name, and house number with addition (if needed).

Postal code and the district in the municipality (Waalwijk, Waspik or SprangCapelle).

The date since the property has been vacant. DayMonthYear.

Shows if the house is owned by a business/ social housing, or a person.

Full name of the business/social housing. Or the first letters of the owner’s first names and their last name in full.

Where the Business/ social or owner is originally located street name and house number with addition (if needed).

Postal code and the district the owner is located. City, village, town name.

The country the owner is located.

The date when there is more information about the house and a note was added. In Note text.

The person who adds the note from the municipality. Their name.

The title is given to the note for example (vacancy November 2024)

The note. A bit of text explaining information what is happening at the property. This is written by the team of VBL.

The numbers of days the house has been vacant.

Table 5.1 Excel vacancy now. Retrieved from department VBL Municipality Waalwijk.

These reasons are similar to what was discussed in chapter 4.1 contributing factors. This table 5.2 combines the factor, causes found in chapter 4.1 in the theory with the data and reasons the Municipality have received from residents. It highlights where the reasons of the data fit in with the theory. However, there are a few added that were missed in chapter 4.1 what is vacancy that is with a valid explanation but cannot fit in a dedicated cause, some people that gave unclear reasons of vacancy where thus a follow up is required. The no replies or no letters have been sent to yet and other reasons that make up a new cause of switch the area function from house to something else and being uninhabitable so not being able to be reoccupied. There is also again from 4.1 the municipal influence shown so the new causes also are displayed of how much influence the Municipality can show for it.

Factors, causes from theory

From Data the reasons

Municipal influence

Administrative vacancy

Occupied, "Sold", "Rented"

++

Bridging

For sale, For rent

+

Family circumstance

Inheritance

0

Physical interventions

Renovations, Waiting for a permit

+

Secondary and seasonal use

Second house

+

And lastly there will be two new columns after the country owner. The first should show when the vacancy letter has been sent out to them. And the column behind that should say how many times this vacancy letter already has been send out to them.

Speculation

Can be: Vacant (no reason), and No reply

+

Not in theory: valid explained vacancy Not in theory: Unclear reasons

Vacant (with explanation/ reason)

+

Vacant (no reason)

+

Not in theory: No Reply

No replies have also happened

+

Not in theory: Other area function

Other area function

+

Not in theory: Uninhabitable

Uninhabitable

+

To show this new excel sheet with these improvements will be shown in four tables, where the first row is again just the name of the column what will be shown of what is in the column in the second row is again a bit of information about the column for what it is used or what is displayed in the columns. In the third columns is now shown where the columns may be of Interest for looking at the housing vacancy and/or it shows the formulas to get the best out of the excel sheet. And then there may be a fourth column by some where the dropdown list is shown of what is in it. See tables 5.3 and 5.4 for these improvements. These tables will also be shown in the appendix 12.4 in the Dutch language.

Table 5.2 Causes and reasons from theory compared with data. Created by (de Bresser, 2025)

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

WOZnumber

Date entry property type

Heff. Blok. year

Code Blocking

Use Code

Description use code

Property type

Description property type

Reason vacancy

Address

Residence

Date vacancy

Number of days vacant

Number of Months vacant

Number of years vacant

Indicator Owner

Name Owner

Address owner

Residence Owner

The WOZ data identification number is shown here.

The date the property became a house/ was built

Is not of importance to see what is vacant. Is for the team of VBL.

Is not of importance to see what is vacant. Is for the team of VBL.

Number to see in what category the property is (like housing, or industry etc.)

Gives the text corresponding with the number. Like (house serving as main residence, or House with practice space)

Number to see what kind of property it is. More specified than just saying it has a function of housing.

Gives the text to the number of what kinds of property it is. Like (Apartment or corner house, row house etc.)

To more easily identify for everyone who has the document to see why the house is vacant, for more on the reason of vacancy can be seen in the notes.

Street name, and house number with addition (if needed)

Postal code and the district in the Municipality (Waalwijk, Waspik or SprangCapelle)

The date since the property has been vacant. Day-MonthYear

The numbers of days the house has been vacant.

The numbers of months the house has been vacant.

The numbers of years the house has been vacant.

Shows if the property is owned by a business/ social housing, or a person.

Full name of the business/ social housing. Or the first letter of the owner’s name and their last name in full

Postal code and the district the owner is located. City, village, town name.

If you want to search what housing type has the most vacancy.

Extra information for the number, but with the number is easier to specify everything with housing.

The Formula you fill in into the first 2 rows and then it can be easily copied all the way down.

The Formula you fill in into the first 2 rows and then it can be easily copied all the way down.

The Formula you fill in into the first 2 rows and then it can be easily copied all the way down.

List creation:

Extra information for the number, but with the number is easier to specify everything with housing.

With this we can define how many years, months, and days the house has been vacant. This can be seen with the use of the BRP.

This is to know who the vacancy letter can be addressed to.

Where the business/ social housing or owner is originally located. Street name and house number with addition (if needed) This is to know where the vacancy letter needs to be sent to.

This table is needed to combine this table into the geoportal.

The code that could be matched or searches if looking for property with housing

List creation: At data validation: select list and fill in: Other area function ;Occupied ;Inheritance ;Vacant (no reason) ;Vacant (with explanation/reason) ;Uninhabitable ;For sale ;”sold” ;For rent ;”Rented” ;Second house ;Renovations ;waiting for permit Apply colour: Conditional Formatting, then, new rule, then, only format cells with, then choose certain text, contains, Occupied (etc., any word from before), format and give the matching colour. Other area function Occupied Inheritance Vacant (no reason) Vacant (with explanation/ reason) Uninhabitable For sale “Sold” For rent “Rented” Second house Renovations Waiting for a permit

In the date vacancy you fill in the column and row number like: L2. =DATUMVERSCHIL(Date vacancy;VANDAAG();”d”) Or in English excel: =DATEDIF(L2;TODAY();”d”)

In the date vacancy you fill in the column and row number like: L2. =DATUMVERSCHIL(Date vacancy;VANDAAG();”m”) Or in English excel: =DATEDIF(L2;TODAY();”m”)

In the date vacancy you fill in the column and row number like: L2.

At data validation: select list and fill in: Private ;social ;Municipality

This is to know where the vacancy letter needs to be sent to.

=DATUMVERSCHIL(Date vacancy;VANDAAG();”y”) Or in English excel: =DATEDIF(L2;TODAY();”y”) Private Social Municipality

Table 5.3 Excel vacancy improved Part 1. Based on excel from the department VBL Municipality Waalwijk, by (de Bresser, 2025).

Table will be continued on page 52

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

Country owner

Vacancy letters send

The country the owner is located

Here they will write down the date the vacancy letter will be send out to the owner

This is to know where the vacancy letter needs to be sent to.

This is to know when the last letter has been sent and if a new letter is already needed.

How many vacancy letters send

Date note added

Note added by

Note text VBL

Note text BSD

Note text LTH

Here the number of how many vacancy letters has been send.

The date when there is more information about the property and a note was added. In Note text.

The person who adds the note from the Municipality. Their name.

The note. A bit of text explaining information what is happening at the property. This is written by the team of VBL.

The note. A bit of text explaining information what is happening at the house. This is written by the team of policy social welfare domain (BSD). (people from the team housing)

The note. A bit of text explaining information what is happening at the property. This is written by the team of LTH.

This is to see how many already been send and received no answer. If it gets to a max, then maybe another way to contact them is needed.

This is also to know when there was last looked at the house in regard to vacancy.

This is to know who the last person was to add a note and who to contact for questions regarding the house.

The are sending and receiving the vacancy letters and having phone calls with people regarding that so they added notes mostly regarding this. And also checking with the taxations and permits.

In this team are the people from the housing team who receive questions regarding housing and the housing stock and much more everything that has to do with housing in the Municipality.

In this team are the people from the LTH department they are more out on the street and see things then. And also keep track of the Fixi notifications. And rules and regulations that are implemented in the Municipality that people need to abide to, they check that here as well.

In Figure 5.1 you can see the whole Municipality with per district (Waalwijk, Sprang-Capelle and Waspik) the number of structural vacant houses. Within this map it is clearly visible that the district of Waalwijk has the most structurally vacant houses with 58 houses, this is not the most surprising the district of Waalwijk has the most structurally vacant houses. Because the district in itself also counts the most houses. This was also mentioned in chapter 4.2.2. Geoportal, where according to the BAG the district has 16099 houses. After that, the district of Sprang-Capelle has the most structural vacant houses with 32 houses, where again according to the BAG the district has about 4162 houses. And lastly there is the district of Waspik with the least amount of structural vacant houses, with 16 houses. Where again according to the BAG this district has about 2267 Houses (BAG Internal information Waalwijk, 2025).

However, when thus looking at the percentages the whole Municipality has a different outcome than what is shown with the numbers. Whereas well earlier mentioned in chapter 4.2.2. Geoportal, the whole Municipality had a percentage of 2.18% for vacant houses (this percentage is made up of the friction, mutation and structural housing vacancy) but looking at the numbers in table 5.5 that shows all the numbers in the Municipality regarding the structural housing vacancy. Now it decreases quite a bit where the Municipality has a structural vacant housing percentage of just 0.47%. And per district the highest percentage is for SprangCapelle with 0.77% what before was named as 3.12%. Then Waspik with 0.71% what before was named as 1.76%. And the lowest percentage being in the district of Waalwijk with 0.36% what before was named as 1.99%.

Table 5.4 Excel vacancy improved Part 2. Based on excel from the department VBL Municipality Waalwijk, by (de Bresser, 2025).

5.2. Visual Mapping With the tools and mapping of structural vacancy with only an Excel sheet filled in it can sometimes be too much, that is why a visual map can sometimes help to actually see where the vacant house is located in the Municipality. This should eventually be connected with the geoportal that is already in existence in the Municipality however, with the outdated data that is currently on there and not seeing how long or why the house is vacant can bring some confusion here and there especially because it is shown per house complex so if there is 1 apartment vacant the whole building is shown on the geoportal as vacant. To see the possibilities and where what is vacant there have been a few maps made to get a better idea. These maps are also not fully up to date. The last information of the excel that was used for these maps

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have a few different dates. The last updated version with the notes and reason of the vacancy letter in the excel is from the 3rd of April. The last updated version with the addresses on which and how long are vacant (that compared with the BRP) is done on the 28th of April. And the day the maps where made was the 7th of May, so there may be some small gaps or mistakes on the addresses or any other things. But it is from this year instead of 2018, so it should be more accurate.

32 58 Figure 5.1 Number of structural vacant houses per district. Created by (de Bresser, 2025).

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

District and Neighbourhoods

Number of total houses

Total Waalwijk Centrum Antoniusparochie Besoyen Laageinde Meerdijk Industrieterrein Haven Baardwijk Bloemenoord Industrieterrein Zanddonk De Hoef Eikendonk Zanddonk Buitengebied Waalwijk Noord Recreatieoord Total Sprang-Capelle Capelle / Nieuwe Vaart Sprang Vrijhoeve Landgoed Driessen Buitengebied Capelle Total Waspik Waspik beneden Waspik Boven Industrieterrein Waspik Buitengebied Waspik Total Municipality of Waalwijk

16099 2703 1145 1848 1683 1280 13

Number of structural Percentage of vacant houses structural vacant houses 58 0.36% 22 0.81% 7 0.61% 6 0.32% 5 0.3% 4 0.31% 4 30.77%

1008 1381 41

3 2 2

0.3% 0.14% 4.88%

939 113 2066 18

1 1 1 0

0.11% 0.88% 0.05% 0%

3 4162 1231

0 32 15

0% 0.77% 1.22%

1097 1791 34 8

9 7 1 0

0.82% 0.39% 2.94% 0%

2267 1697 533 28

16 9 6 1

0.71% 0.53% 1.13% 3.57%

9 22528

0 106

0% 0.47%

Going into a bit more detail in which neighbourhoods this structural housing vacancy can be seen in figure 5.2, and also a combination with table 5.5. Within this figure it can be seen that the neighbourhood in Waalwijk, Centrum has the most amount of structural vacant houses a total of 22. This area also has the most amount of houses because it is the centrum and there is more mix function there as well, with also less m² per resident. And looking at the Data most of these houses are apartments and it depends on the demography as well who wants to live there and has the money for it because the centrum can be seen as a wanted area to live in. Also, the reasons of vacancy in this district can explain a lot as well that will be explained more in the next few Alinea’s (Internal information Waalwijk, 2025). And in Sprang-Capelle the neighbourhood of Capelle / Nieuwe Vaart has the most structural housing vacancy of a total of 15. This is not that unique because in the neighbourhood of Capelle / Nieuwe vaart it is much more rural and filled with more owner-occupied houses with 73% in Capelle where the social letting is mostly in Nieuwe Vaart. In Sprang-Capelle the neighbourhoods that have most of the housing is with Capelle / Nieuwe Vaart being a total of 1231 houses, Vrijhoeve

1791 houses and, Sprang 1097 houses. (BAG Internal information Waalwijk, 2025) Also, in the neighbourhood of Capelle / Nieuwe Vaart the average year the houses were built is much lower than the average of the other neighbourhoods with the average of 1964 for Capelle / Nieuwe Vaart, 1970 for Sprang and 1978 for Vrijhoeve. This all can play a role in why that neighbourhood has the most vacancy (Waalwijk in Cijfers - Gemeente Waalwijk, n.d.). And lastly in Waspik, the neighbourhood of Waspik beneden has a total of 9 structural vacant houses. Waspik beneden is the neighbourhood with the highest number because of the 2267 houses that are there in the whole district 1697 of those houses are in Waspik beneden that is more than half. Compared to what is second after that Waspik Boven with 533 houses (BAG Internal information Waalwijk, 2025). This is also why Waspik beneden has more vacancy because there are more houses in the neighbourhood. There are a few neighbourhoods in each district that it has no colour this is because there is no structural vacant house located in these neighbourhoods.

Table 5.5 Number and percentage of the structural housing vacancy in Waalwijk. Created by (de Bresser, 2025).

Figure 5.2 Number of structural vacant houses per neighbourhood. Created by (de Bresser, 2025).

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Structural housing vacancy in municipality Waalwijk

Continuing for the visual mapping will the next maps that will be talked about are shown in the appendix 12.5 this is because it has some restricted access because it shows more the actual location of the vacancy. In figure 12.5 (will be visible in the appendix 12.5 (restricted access)) is a map that shows the exact location of the houses that are structurally vacant, with how many months they are vacant. This is done by the outline of the building even if it just 1 apartment the whole complex will receive a colour. However, as can be seen even if you’re looking from just the district it can be very unclear where the house is. So that is why it was decided to work with dots that adjust size the more zoomed on the actual location it gets. And to see the different colour of the months vacant can be seen. For this analysis with the reason of vacancy there was looked at just the data reasons given in table 5.2 it is visible how they combine with the theory of chapter 4.1. after this analysis it goes back to the reasons given in the theory with the extra that is also visible in table 5.2 to show from the 106 structural vacant house how much is actually vacant where something can be done by the Municipality for it. This influence is shown in table 4.1.

In figure 12.6 (will be visible in the appendix 12.5 (restricted access)) is the district of Waspik where now shown with dots on the location the number of months the house has been structural vacant where the lowest that will be shown is 12 months. As seen in the figure there is a house that have been vacant for more than 119 months that is almost 10 years. However, majority of the houses in Waspik has not been vacant for more than 3 years. However, looking at figure 12.7 (will be visible in the appendix 12.5 (restricted access)) is the reason of vacancy per each of these houses in Waspik. Not every house is on this map

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