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Annual Report 2024
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Social

Tenant satisfaction

Ensuring sustainable and affordable housing is at the heart of our social responsibility, with tenant satisfaction playing a central role in fostering thriving communities. By actively involving tenants, we strengthen social cohesion, enhance the living environment, and ultimately drive greater satisfaction among residents. A pleasant home, a smooth customer journey and clear and transparent communications all contribute to this. 

Digitalisation enhances our ability to provide a seamless customer experience while ensuring personal contact remains available when needed. By optimising internal workflows and streamlining the customer journey, we make it easier for tenants to connect with us and ensure that questions and repair requests are resolved efficiently the first time.

Measuring tenant satisfaction is a valuable indicator for us, as it lets us know whether we are on the right track and how we can improve our homes and services.

We measure tenant satisfaction once a year through a benchmark survey conducted by Customeyes. In 2024, in total 13 residential investors in the Netherlands participated in this survey. The Customeyes data consists of a representative sample drawn from all Vesteda’s tenants. The survey provides us with detailed information on how our tenants experience our homes, the living environment and the level of our services. We share the results of this survey with our tenants and employees and evaluate the results to identify potential improvements.

Tenant satisfaction (Customeyes benchmark)

Vesteda is proud to have outperformed the benchmark in last year’s annual Customeyes survey, achieving a score of 7.3 (benchmark: 7.0). Once again, this was an all-time high for Vesteda. We believe that the seventh consecutive outperformance of the benchmark reflects the importance of our in-house property management and the value of gathering direct feedback from our tenants. We are especially proud to be recognised as ‘Best in class’ across all service-related categories. We have identified our strengths, which are crucial to maintaining our top-tier performance. At the same time, we continue to focus on areas where we can improve our services, ensuring we further solidify our leadership position in the industry.

Affordability

Annual rent increase

In 2024, the government passed legislation to set the maximum annual rent increase for liberalised housing for the next five years at the lower of CBA wage growth plus 1% or inflation plus 1%. In 2024, the average CBA wage growth was 5.8% and average inflation was 4.5%. This means that the maximum permitted rent increase for 2024 was 5.5%. Vesteda opted for a voluntary rent increase cap of a maximum of 4%.

Providing affordable housing is a priority for us, and we are committed to ensuring that our properties remain accessible in the long term. By maintaining a consistent rent policy, we provide tenants with clarity and predictability about what they can expect from us. For this reason, we have opted for a rent increase of inflation (CPI) + 1%, with a maximum of 4%, for our liberalised homes. The same maximum percentage applies to our regulated (social rental) properties, for which the government set a maximum increase of 5.8%.

Reduction of energy use: Renovations and tenant engagement

The sustainability of a home plays a crucial role in its affordability, particularly when it comes to energy usage. To address this, we invest in large-scale renovations, which includes providing free solar panels to help reduce energy consumption and lower costs for tenants. Our goal is to inspire our tenants to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, while also reducing their total cost of living. We send newsletters to our tenants several times a year, to inform them about relevant issues such as sustainability and energy saving, and provide them with useful tips. Furthermore, we inform all our tenants about essential insurance requirements and practical maintenance tips.

Supporting community through home sharing and housing for key workers

Home sharing policy: We maintained our existing home sharing policy in several complexes in 2024. We reintroduced our collaboration with Onder de Pannen, an initiative that allows our tenants to sublet a room to a fellow citizen who is temporarily without housing, to our tenants through a marketing campaign.

Key workers: Vesteda believes it is important for people in key social professions, such as nurses, teachers, police officers and firefighters to be able to live in the same city that they work. Key workers were given priority in completed new-build complexes The Ox and Typisch Tuinstad in Amsterdam and De Kuil and Zuiderhof in Rotterdam.

Engaged stakeholders and a socially engaged organisation

We are committed to building strong, sustainable relationships with our tenants, participants, and other stakeholders. By prioritising transparent communication and open dialogue about our activities and plans, we foster mutual trust. In 2024, we actively supported various initiatives:

  • JINC: Help young adults to prepare for and start their working life by giving job application training;

  • BeterBuren: Partnership with the BeterBuren (better neighbours) organisation, a neutral party and mediator for neighbours involved in disputes;

  • Actieplan Woonveiligheid: action plan to improve the safety of residential homes.

In addition, we want to contribute to society and to the neighbourhoods where our properties are located:

  • Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei: Vesteda is proud to serve as a social partner to the National 4 and 5 May Committee, collaborating with other companies and funds to strengthen societal support for National Remembrance Day on 4 May and Liberation Day on 5 May. As we mark 80 years of freedom in 2024 and 2025, Vesteda remains committed to actively contributing to the events and values commemorated during this period. Through a three-year partnership, we support initiatives such as hosting Freedom Meals at various Vesteda locations. These meals celebrate freedom and also bring people together, fostering social cohesion within our communities.

  • Havendiner: This year, Vesteda organised a Havendiner, a meaningful event bringing people together over a shared meal. We were honoured to welcome 20 of our tenants alongside 80 Ukrainian refugees, creating an opportunity for connection and understanding. The dinner reflects our commitment to fostering inclusivity and social cohesion within our communities. By encouraging people to share their stories and experiences, we aim to build bridges and strengthen bonds across diverse groups.

  • Vogelbescherming: Together with the Dutch Society for the Protection of Birds, Vesteda is researching how we can improve the biodiversity in our portfolio by installing bird and insect houses. New tenants receive a welcome package that includes a voucher for a garden centre, provided by Vogelbescherming;

  • Struikroven partnership: In 2023 Vesteda extended its partnership with the Struikroven Foundation through a new cooperation agreement that now includes construction firms and developers such as Heijmans, BAM Wonen, ERA Contour, and Dura Vermeer, alongside the sustainability organisation Urgenda. This strategic alliance aims to make the conservation and recycling of existing greenery a standard practice at construction sites and renovation and redevelopment projects.