The building plan as a wall of complaint: 'I've already lost a ton in storage costs'

A building plan these days seems like a wall of complaint: almost always there are objections. One builder who suffers from that is Tala. "Just on one project alone, we are losing a ton in storage costs," says one of the founders of the modular home builder, in the podcast Bureau Stoer.

On average, it takes just ten years before a shovel goes into the ground in housing projects. One of the underlying problems is the growing pile of notices of objection: more and more often citizens and businesses object to building plans.

It causes sometimes years of delay and expense, while most objections do not stand up in court. That problem "of unnecessarily long delays" is something the government has wanted to solve for years. However, a bill promising shorter procedures still awaits consideration in the Senate.

Victor de Beus, co-founder of the modular home builder Tala, balks at this. This year he is delivering about a hundred homes, but there could have been many more. "In at least one in three projects, we run into objectors. In at least half of the cases, the delay later turned out to have been for 'nothing.' Very frustrating," says De Beus in the latest episode of the podcast Bureau Stoer.

Homes in storage

The houses of three projects are stored in a shed. They don't leave there until the judge gives the final green light to build. "The most dramatic case is a project in Bunschoten Spakenburg. The houses are made, beautiful and ready to live in. However, they have been in storage for two in years because the permit is still not irrevocable. That already cost us a ton in storage costs."

Maarten Bosman, a planner and owner of Dutchplanners, shares De Beus' dejection and says he has the solution. He researched thousands of State Council decisions and put their data into an "anti-objection" model. He promises to cut the turnaround time of projects in half.

Bosman: "At the front end of projects, we find out what the risks and possible showstoppers are. Based on that, we issue trip guarantees." The model is aptly named Sinbad and refers to one of the main characters in the story collection One Thousand and One Nights. "That is the average delay time of a project that has been challenged," Bosman said.

Sad momentum

Nicole Maarsen, real estate expert and member of the national housing acceleration table, thinks the objector problem deserves more attention. She speaks of a sad momentum. "The number of people who object to building plans and do so repeatedly is enormous. People apparently don't feel heard or taken seriously. I think that's really concerning."

When Maarsen was still a developer herself, she also once had to deal with objectors. She managed to resolve that at the time without delay and expense. "I went straight to the alderman. With his official team, we agreed together how we would organize the permit. But that was in the time of the Crisis and Recovery Act."

Tip of the iceberg

The "problem of objectors" has long had the attention of the State. Among other things, it wants to make going to the State Council more difficult. De Beus welcomes this, but nuances that the cases that end up at the State Council are just the tip of the iceberg.

"Most of the appeals don't get there at all, even though they cause delays. If you look at the pain in the construction industry, that's where most of the pain is in the end."

Solutions

Maarsen signals that "we" have forgotten to engage with each other. In the podcast, the trio also points to examples where Omgevingsdiensten and market players are working better together and/or more data-driven. Another solution they see is 'affordable' insurance of the risk of construction procedures. Such insurance already seems to exist, but its premium is relatively high, so developers hardly seem to opt for it.

De Beus: "The problem is not that the permit won't come. The problem is: when will that permit get there."

Listen to Bureau Stoer here

Office Tough
Episode 3: File Objectors | 'I've already lost a ton in storage fees'
With: Vincent de Beus, founder modular home builder Tala, Maarten Bosman, Dutchplanners and Nicole Maarsen.
Presentation: Thomas van Belzen
Montage: Kalynda Haaf (HaafVisual)

Also listen to previous episodes

Episode 1: 'The new Minister of Housing? Hans Vrijling'
Episode 2: Dossier CO2 | 'Plant-free construction is the future'

About Bureau Stoer

Bureau Tough is a weekly, investigative and curious podcast about cases that frustrate future area development. Three futurists and a journalist, along with constantly different experts, bite into numerous headache files, such as grid congestion, CO2, nitrogen, climate adaptation and sufficient drinking water connections.

The acronym "Stoer" stands for a built environment that is Smart, Future-Focused, Enterprising, Fair and Realistic. Bureau Stoer aims not only to address and analyze problems, but to help solve them.

Bureau Stoer's core team consists of three experts in housing, building and area development. They are Nicole Maarsen (housing acceleration table, digitalization, smart cities), Dick van Ginkel (TBI innovation manager, regulatory expert) and Jan Willem van de Groep (biobased building, power accelerator, innovation). The presentation is in the hands of Thomas van Belzen, editor-in-chief of Construction & Installation at the Jaarbeurs.

Tips or comments

Do you have tips for files that Bureau Stoer should get stuck into? Do you have a problem you want to bring to their attention or a solution? If so, email "chief" Thomas van Belzen at Bureaustoer@jaarbeurs.nl.