Housing minister under fire for saying starters can "fortunately" live with parents
Coalition party VVD wants an apology from housing minister Elanor Boekholt-O'Sullivan, and BBB has put written questions to her, over a remark about young people hunting for a first home.
Coalition party the VVD demanded an apology in the Tweede Kamer from housing minister Elanor Boekholt-O'Sullivan over her remarks about starters on the housing market. It did not get one.
Written questions from MP Keijzer of the BBB, submitted on 14 October, put the remark to the minister. They say she said on 13 October, in response to research showing that newly built homes are needed on a large scale for asylum seekers: "We see that very many starters fortunately, not ideal, but fortunately, can still live with their parents or stay living with them."
Keijzer asks whether the minister agrees it is unacceptable for hundreds of thousands of young Dutch people, who often wait years on a list, that a housing minister dismisses their housing problem by saying they can "fortunately live with their parents".
Keijzer also asks which group has priority for the minister: young people who have searched for years for a home of their own, or asylum seekers who are here for a short time. She asks whether the minister will state that, when housing is scarce, the interests of Dutch starters come first. She also asks whether the minister will adopt an initiative bill by Keijzer, Claassen and Clemminck on new rules for housing status holders (Kamerstuk 36935).
The questions also ask how the minister will ensure enough alternative housing, and whether municipalities will be forced to create "flow-through locations" (doorstroomlocaties), a kind of new asylum centre for people with a residence permit, under the dispersal law (spreidingswet).
The numbers today
The state asks municipalities to house 15,000 status holders in the first half of 2026 and 16,300 in the second; on 1 January the backlog on earlier targets stood at 8,933, and by 1 April 310 of the 342 municipalities were behind, with 17,269 still to house before 1 July, according to the Ministry of Asylum and Migration's monthly overview.
Municipalities must house 17,269 status holders by 1 July 2026 to clear the backlog
Status holders
Municipalities must house 17,269 status holders by 1 July 2026 to clear the backlog (status holders). Highest: Still to house by 1 July 2026, 17,269; lowest: Housed, January to March 2026, 6,664; 5 items. Source: Ministry of Asylum and Migration, overview of 1 April 2026; letter of 3 April 2026.
View data
| Item | Status holders |
|---|---|
| Backlog on 1 January 2026 | 8,933 |
| Target, first half of 2026 | 15,000 |
| Housed, January to March 2026 | 6,664 |
| Still to house by 1 July 2026 | 17,269 |
| Target, second half of 2026 | 16,300 |
How much social housing that takes: in the Rotterdam region, the most recent regional count, housing corporations let 723 of their 10,471 social rental homes in 2025 to status-holder households, 7%, while regular applicants waited a median 43 months (the region's own monitor, not a CBS statistic). Nationally, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) puts the share at 7.9% of the 161,000 corporation homes that came free in 2023; among the homes let to starters that year, about one in five went to a status-holder household, because 64% of status-holder households moving in were starters against 22% of the rest. CBS has not yet published 2024 or 2025.
VVD (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie)
The liberal party on the centre-right, which favours free enterprise and lower taxes. It supplied the prime minister from 2010 to 2024 and is one of the three parties in the current cabinet, with D66 and the CDA.
BBB (Boer Burger Beweging)
The Farmer-Citizen Movement is a Dutch political party that focuses on rural issues, agriculture and the interests of farmers and people in the countryside. It contests national elections and has members in the Tweede Kamer, the House of Representatives, where its MPs ask questions and debate government policy.
statushouders
Status holders are people who have applied for asylum in the Netherlands and been granted a residence permit, meaning they are allowed to stay here as refugees or as people in need of protection. Once they receive this status, they move out of asylum reception and into regular housing, which is why their access to homes is a recurring topic in Dutch housing debates.