AMSTERDAM: Housing corporation Staedion has chosen Heijmans as its partner to work with The Hague city council on the transformation and renewal of the city’s Dreven, Gaarden and Zichten neighbourhoods.

In a follow-up to a letter of intent signed in late 2018, Heijmans and Staedion this week signed a continuation agreement for the plans in the southwestern section of The Hague.

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Affordable homes in a healthy living environment: The city’s plans to improve local residents’ perspective in terms of participation, work, social cohesion and safety will require an integrated approach, linking the spatial and physical task to the socio-economic task of this project.

The first important steps have already been taken to create a healthy living environment affordable for everyone. This will result in a highly differentiated neighbourhood with a mix of government-regulated and liberalised rental sector homes and owner-occupied homes.

Ambition: to around 5,500 homes from 2,000 homes: The Hague has high ambitions for the Dreven, Gaarden and Zichten neighbourhoods. The city wants to combine a sharp densification of the residential programme – to around 5,500 homes from the current 2,000 homes – with improvements to the neighbourhoods’ liveability, local economies, social cohesion, health of the residents and the implementation of the mobility and energy transition.

The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and The Hague city council have reached a number of agreements related to a long-term partnership on the planning and realisation of urban renewal and densification in the southwestern section of the city.

Construction set to start in 2023: Heijmans and the Staedion housing corporation will work with The Hague city council on the details of the integrated plans. The partners plan to start construction on the first sub-plans in 2023.

The shared ambition is to then build some 500 homes each year. Heijmans will assume responsibility for a significant part of this development. The total renewal project is expected to require investments of around € 1.5 billion.

More government-regulated homes: The basic premise is that the number of social, government-regulated rental homes in Dreven, Gaarden and Zichten should at the very least remain the same, to give every resident the chance to continue living in the neighbourhood.

Some 30% of the homes to be added also fall into the government-regulated rental category, which amounts to around 2,800 social homes in the neighbourhood. On top of this, 20% of the new homes will be in the mid-rental segment. The remaining homes will be in various categories of the private sector.

Staedion owns one in seven of all homes in The Hague. As a housing corporation, Staedion rents more than 37,000 homes and 6,500 other properties, such as shops, business premises and parking places in The Hague.

Staedion offers affordable homes for people in a vulnerable position on the housing market. Staedion’s highest priority is safe and pleasant living. The company’s mission is: working with our tenants to make having a home possible. Staedion cannot do this alone. We work to create a pleasant living environment with residents and our (social) partners. www.staedion.nl

Everyone wants clean air, to live in a nice neighbourhood, to work in a good workplace and to be able to travel safely from A to B. By making things better, more sustainable and smarter, Heijmans is creating that healthy living environment. Jan Heijmans started as a road builder in 1923.

Today, Heijmans is a stock exchange-listed company that combines activities in property development, building & technology and infrastructure. www.heijmans.nl/en/