My #projecthouse is – unfortunately – not finished yet. I still haven’t found a house. I got lots of responses to the letters that I still deliver every week. People want to think along and really hope I find a house, but unfortunately the tips are often too expensive. 375,000 euros and then still having to overbid is not starter-proof. I am also often asked whether I know Slimmerkopen.nl, an initiative that is similar to social housing in rental properties, but for sale in this case. Yes I know Slimmerkopen. I have been participating for over six years and have never had any luck, but perhaps that is different for you, so I am sharing the concept so that someone else in a similar situation may be able to find an affordable home.
Slimmerkopen.nl is therefore an initiative to buy a (former) social house. It is intended for people who actually earn just too little money to buy a house on the normal market. You can usually buy houses there with a discount that depends on your income.
Alerts
To see all the homes for sale, create a free account and set alerts for each neighborhood you are interested in. Slimmerkopen focuses mainly on Eindhoven and some surrounding villages. There must be more initiatives like this in other cities and towns. A quick google search for ‘social housing + your region’ will probably provide a definitive answer.
Lottery
Back to slimmerkopen.nl. So once you have set up your alerts, you will get a notification when a house becomes available in the area you are interested in. Then you have to respond to the house and participate in the lottery. After the draw, number 1 is the first to view the house and if he likes it, he can buy it for the asking price minus the discount. So you don’t have to outbid. However, I see an average of 280 people responding per house, with peaks of 460 for neat houses. Because most houses are former social rental properties and for some reason most social tenants who’s homes are sold on this website, leave (and kept) their homes in poor condition. I mostly see completely run-down houses that make you wonder why you’d be doing that to yourself. I’d be ashamed leaving something like that to the person after me. Knowing this you might understand why so many more people respond to the very few neat houses that only require some minimal painting and new curtains.
I understand this target group has less money to spend. I mean, it’s not without reason that you live in a subsidized house. But you don’t have to tear down wallpaper, break down the kitchen or just never clean it. Anyway, keep in mind that you’ll almost always have to renovate quite a lot and therefore make investments.
But it is also financially more interesting to buy a Slimmerkopen house. You can get a mortgage up to the appraised value. The discount gives you some leeway and you can use that money to renovate and pay the buyer’s costs, for example. With that knowledge I really respond to almost everything, including all those worn-out places. If you really want a house in this market, unfortunately you can’t maintained my rental property very well.
Small chance
Anyway, a lottery with at least 280 people participating means that you really don’t have much of a chance. Yes, more than a regular lottery where you can win money. But I have been participating in Slimmerkopen for more than six years (!) and respond to almost every house and have never gotten position number 1. Once I was in 4th place and then number 1 bought the house straight away. That was a neat house with garden, bathtub and a fireplace. I was very sad, you are so close and you still don’t manage.
During the draw, five people are ranked for places 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The house is also offered to those people in that order. If numbers 1 to 5 refuse or do not have their papers in order, the house will be offered as ‘immediately for sale’. This means that the first person to respond to the website may buy it. Sounds nice, but it’s terrible. I respond very fast. The last time I even managed to fill in the form and send it within 1.5 minutes of the publication of the house – which you don’t get notified of! And I was still placed on the spare list of candidates. People are ready like hyenas… It makes me quite hopeless, but at the same time I hope that my tip might bring happiness to someone else in a similar situation. Are you also participating in a social purchasing initiative?
PS wooniezie.nl also sometimes has former social housing for sale, but the quality is usually very low as well and the supply is only sporadic compared to Slimerkopen.nl.