# Refugee households starting in social housing up 150% since 2018

> Statistics Netherlands (CBS) says nearly 9,000 refugee households moved into a social home as starters in 2024, against 3,500 in 2018. They are 21% of all starters.

Migration · published 2026-10-28 21:36 · updated 2026-10-28 22:37 · https://nlnow.nl/a/refugee-households-are-one-in-five-starters-in-social-housing/

Of all starters on the housing market who moved into a housing association home in 2024, 21% were households with a status holder, a refugee with a residence permit, CBS figures show. In 2018 the share was 9%.

**Refugee households starting out in social housing rose from 3,500 in 2018 to 8,800 in 2024** (thousand households; source: CBS)

- 2018: 3.5
- 2019: 3.2
- 2020: 3.2
- 2021: 6.2
- 2022: 6.9
- 2023: 8.2
- 2024: 8.8

That is an increase of about 150% in six years. The number of other households starting in social housing hardly moved, between 33,000 and 36,000 a year.

Across all housing association homes that became vacant in 2024, just over 8% went to households with a status holder. That is just over 13,000 homes, about the same as a year earlier.

## Background

- **CBS (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek)**: Statistics Netherlands, the independent government body that produces the official statistics on the Dutch economy and society.
- **woningcorporatie**: Housing associations are non-profit organisations that own and manage rental homes, mostly for households with lower incomes. They operate under the Housing Act (Woningwet), which requires them to keep their core business focused on affordable housing. They make up a large part of the Dutch social rental sector.
- **statushouder**: A status holder is a person who has applied for asylum in the Netherlands and has been granted a residence permit as a refugee or under subsidiary protection. This permit gives the right to live, work and study in the Netherlands. Status holders are often placed in municipalities through the national dispersal system and then look for their own housing.

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