.svg)
Last night, 18 December 2025, the new Housing Regulation of the municipality of Haarlem was adopted. The new documents can be found at https://gemeentebestuur-haarlem.notubiz.nl/vergadering/1445697. The municipal council has relaxed the rules for splitting properties with three amendments.
Research by Natuur & Milieu, consisting of desk research into all Dutch municipalities and qualitative research among 150 municipalities, shows that municipalities do see the opportunities for creating additional housing through splitting, but often restrict sharing and splitting due to certain concerns and strict rules they apply. The municipal council of Haarlem has now taken a first step towards loosening the rules.
In housing journal #34, I already announced that a new housing regulation was in the works for the municipality of Haarlem. In that blog, I described the issues surrounding the Housing Regulation for the division of homes in the municipality of Haarlem. The councillors studied these issues in depth and drafted and adopted no fewer than three amendments.
1. In the first amendment, the council scrapped the requirement to create at least one flat of 80 m² (and the rest at least 50 m²) and replaced it with a requirement that new homes may not be smaller than 50 m².
2. In the second amendment, the council made an exception for homes between 250 and 500 m² GFA to be divided in the area where a division ban applies.
3. In the third amendment, the council requested the municipal executive to provide scope within the Housing Regulation for generous customisation in the case of dwellings that were demonstrably legally permitted before 2019 by means of an environmental permit (formerly a building permit), but no longer comply with the current regulation.
This last amendment does not offer a solution for cases that were not legally permitted before 2019, but these three amendments show that the council is keen to establish less strict regulations on division.
