32. Contingencies and commitments

The total liabilities for obligations entered into for construction contracts, rental and lease instalments stood at €22 million at year-end (2024: €47 million). Rental and lease instalment liabilities are accounted for under Lease liabilities. Vesteda has not provided security for these liabilities. The liabilities can be specified as follows:

Annulment of rent increase clauses

In 2023, several Dutch district courts held that certain rent review clauses consisting of CPI plus a surcharge could be considered unfair, creating a risk that historical rent increases might be invalidated and subject to repayment. At the end of 2024, the Supreme Court provided clarification, ruling that a surcharge on top of CPI is not in itself unlawful. The indexation component and the surcharge must be assessed separately, given their different purposes. The Supreme Court also indicated that a surcharge of up to approximately 3% above CPI is generally not considered unfair.

At the end of 2025, the Amsterdam District Court announced its intention to submit preliminary questions to the European Court of Justice in a case involving a CPI + 7% clause linked to the development of the value of immovable property (WOZ value). Depending on the scope of those questions, this may have implications for a broader range of surcharge clauses. In legal proceedings initiated by one of Vesteda’s tenants, the Amsterdam Subdistrict Court ruled that the +4% surcharge included in the tenant’s lease agreement should be considered unfair, while the CPI indexation component itself remained valid. Vesteda has appealed this decision. At the end of 2025 and early 2026, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal issued two judgments in which a +5% surcharge was similarly found to be unfair.

This risk remains largely outside Vesteda’s direct control. Vesteda contributed to an IVBN interested‑party statement submitted to the Supreme Court and performed high‑level scenario analyses to assess potential outcomes.