Last Tuesday we talked about ‘new forms of living’. Before the start of the meeting we sent almost 30 birdhouses as a present to all participants. This way they can offer a family of blue tits a new home. Wienke Bodewes, chairman of HPP, opened the meeting and introduced the three speakers.

Tanja Morsheim, Program Manager at Platform 31 kicked off with a presentation that presented the attendees an idea of the population growth that will take place in the coming years and the need to develop other housing for the various population groups.

“One thing is clear: the increase in households and changing family compositions call for a different approach.”

Especially because there was already a housing shortage and the need for housing has increased. She also noticed that themes such as housing for the elderly, care and energy call for cooperation. Last, she mentioned that the gap between social housing, free rent and sales is too large.

Bart Louw, Manager Strategy & Research at Amvest elaborated on the theme: living as a service. He also mentioned that people’s (housing) needs have changed because of the changed lifestyles and the downsizing of households among both young and old. Much more effort is being put into services, for example through an app to support the use of services and a community manager who supports the residents.

After this, he presented two projects that Amvest has just completed; 2Peer and the Startmotor. These projects are aimed at young people (at MBO level). The rents are composed of a ‘basic rent’ with possibilities to purchase additional services. At 2Peer, friends can live together in a flat, each with their own bedroom and a shared living room. The starter motor is more focused on single use.

Lyongo Juliana, Directeur Caribbean Region at OZ architect showed us an overview of the population composition of Amsterdam: 56% migrants and 22% singles. Are we aware of this? Corona clearly shows the wrongdoings. Migrants want more m2 to have room to receive family. Contrary to non-immigrants, who want more m2 to be able to avoid each other in the house.

“Do we actually know how people want to live? We will have to make effort to observe what people want.”

The Netherlands is the richest country in the world, but we cannot solve the demand for affordable housing…

In short, the discussion has only just begun! After these insightful presentations we can say that observation, knowledge sharing and cooperation are central to tackling housing problems.