Buying flex homes will not be possible on a large scale for the time being. Too few municipalities can offer guarantees, reports Nationale Hypotheek Garantie (NHG). Consumers run too much risk without these guarantees.
NHG investigated whether people can buy a flex home with a thirty-year mortgage on land that has a temporary designation. Flex homes are small, affordable housing units that can be built quickly. A flex home would be an affordable alternative to buy, especially for starters.
Flex homes are now mainly rented out. The purchase sector is lagging behind, because there are still too many uncertainties for both buyers and investors. Such as the value of the flex home when someone wants to sell after ten years. Or what happens if the temporary residential designation expires and the home has to be moved.
Too few municipalities can provide a relocation guarantee, the research shows. Such a guarantee, that there would be a new location after the residential designation expires, was one of the conditions of NHG to make flexible purchase possible. “That guarantee is essential to provide buyers with sufficient certainty,” writes NHG.
Without such guarantees, large-scale projects are unlikely to get off the ground. “It’s a shame, because we are ready to actively contribute through this initiative to reduce the housing shortage among starters,” says NHG director Roald van der Linde.