The Dutch Fixed Lease Act restricts temporary residential lease contracts. Property managers are switching back to indefinite lease agreements as the industry baseline.
This directly influences tenant retention, turnover costs, and vacancy management. Advanced Business Central contract management tools enable proactive portfolio optimization.
The bill
An initiative bill by Henk Nijboer (PvdA) and Pieter Grinwis (CU) would make the permanent lease the norm again, reversing the 2016 change that introduced temporary leases to speed up the rental market. Temporary contracts would remain possible only in specific exceptional cases.
What the evaluation found
The 2021 evaluation of the law found that temporary contracts grew strongly, mainly among private landlords in major cities — without clearly showing that housing supply actually increased as a result. In some neighborhoods, turnover rose instead, putting pressure on residents' ties to their local area.
What this means for property managers
Industry bodies such as Vastgoed Belang note that many landlords use temporary contracts mainly to screen tenants, not to rotate them annually. With permanent contracts returning as the norm, contract management and duration become an even bigger focus: the longer a tenancy runs, the more weight a careful onboarding process and clear upfront agreements carry.
