Just learned that there are hundreds of buildings in Amsterdam that are empty above the ground floor because removing the stairs for extra square meters on the ground floor is more profitable than providing people with a place to live.

Countrywide there are apparently around 70.000 empty homes above shops, quite often large enough that they could be split into multiple units.

There are other reasons why space goes unused as well, including regulatory nonsense such as unnecessary parking requirements, but we really do need to start taxing empty buildings 😒

nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/11/12/verbo…

#News #NLpol

In kantoren en lege winkels zijn 1 miljoen verborgen woningen

Woningbouw: Nederland kan een miljoen woningen toevoegen door lege winkels en kantoren om te bouwen, maar vooral door bestaande woningen te splitsen. Nederlandse huizen zijn groot, terwijl er vooral behoefte is aan woningen voor een of twee personen.

^{Karel Berkhout (NRC)}