Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
Hmph.
...
So, yes, your government is wise to try to scale back that program.
As you said, bad things lie that way.
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Indeed; but many of the people here are of the opinion that the government is "stealing"; they feel entitled to have that extra money for ever and ever, not realising that this HRA-thing was only intended to live a bit easier after buying a house (one which you could have afforded WITHOUT the HRA, that is), and that originally, the HRA would be lowered, because the expected income would rise as people got older and worked longer.
So, the HRA was first created as some sort of kickstart, a temporary benefit to allow people to buy a house earlier/younger (giving them a longer time to pay back, also), but it ended up being a permanent source of income for many, needed to actually pay the bills. That was never the intention, and now the government can't get rid of it, lest they cause people to lose their house.
Even if HRA stays in place for people who already have it and it gets scaled back or abolished for new buyers, these new buyers can't pay the requested amount for a house anymore. Thus, the €200K house that rose to €240K+, will sink back to a maximum of €200K, possibly lower, because other taxes and such have risen over the year, so people can afford even less.
The original buyers still have their €240K mortgage on that house, so they will not (be able to) move, lest they'll incur a €40K+ dept. All of this uncertainty is causing the housing market in the Netherlands to be in a deadlock.
This is putting restraints on people's mobility. It creates the problem (among others) that we have people capable of job X in the south, and people capable of job Y in the north, while the companies requiring these people are just located the other way around, and many are not able to move. (I'm not even talking about the number of jobs that have been shrinking the last 6-7 years due to the economic downturn that started in 2007-2008.)