The Real Estate sector in 2025

Several Acts that are crucial for accelerating the energy transition have been approved by the Senate (Eerste Kamer). These laws empower municipalities to play a leading role in the energy and heat transitions within their regions.

• Energy Act 2025
  On 1 April 2025, the new Energy Act (Energiewet) is exepected to come into effect. This legislation will combine the existing Electricity Act 1998 (Elektriciteitswet 1998) and the Gas Act (Gaswet) into a unified statutory framework aimed at supporting and promoting the Dutch energy transition. It incorporates various commitments from the Dutch Climate Agreement 2019 (Klimaatakkoord) and provides scope for upcoming regulations from the European Union regarding the energy sector, such as the "Clean Energy for All Europeans" package. Additionally, the House of Representatives has adopted eighteen amendments that modify the legislation on various points. These include provisions for cable pooling, energy sharing, and increased flexibility for system administrators (systeembeheerders) to address grid congestion. The amendments also offer connected parties additional options to arrange for their own grid connection points if the system administrator is unable to do so.

• Municipal Instruments for Heat Transition Act (Wgiw)
  The Wgiw (Wet gemeentelijke instrumenten warmtetransitie) requires municipalities to create a heat program every five years, outlining which areas will transition away from natural gas and identifying alternative heating solutions. This provides clarity for building owners, network operators, and other stakeholders regarding the future heat supply in neighborhoods. The law also grants municipalities the authority to amend zoning plans and set deadlines for phasing out natural gas in specific areas. The Wgiw will be implemented in phases. The amendment to the Heat Act (Warmtewet) will come into effect on 1 January 2025, while the remaining parts of the Wgiw are expected to be implemented on 1 January 2026.

On 18 December 2024, the Council of State (Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State) issued two judgements in which it significantly changed the legal approach with respect to internal netting (intern salderen) in relation to the assessment of the impact of a project (nitrogen emissions) on Natura 2000 areas and the relevant ecological parameters. Although, this not a new law, this judgement basically has the same implications as the court ruled that – as of now – a Nature permit (omgevingsvergunning Natura-2000-activiteit) will be required for new and for (retrospectively) completed projects that use and/or use(d) internal netting for their project(s). This in contradiction to the earlier law / jurisprudence, under which a permit for internal netting was not required.

The core change is – in summary – that internal netting can no longer be considered in the so-called pre-liminary assessment (voortoets), to determine whether such permit is required for the project. Under former regulations internal netting could be used to demonstrate that no permit was required, as no effects were expected by setting of the balance of the former activities with the new activities' emissions (not resulting in an increase of emissions / depositions on the relevant Natura 2000 areas). Under this new ruling an impact assessment (passende beoordeling) (i.e. Nature permit) will be required when applying internal netting and therefore a Nature permit is – as of now – required . We note that applying internal netting is still possible but – as of now – additional criteria have to be met in brief: (i) a threshold of a certain percentage has to be deducted from the project emissions for general/public use; (ii) the additionality-criterium will apply (meaning that internal netting can only be permitted, if in general there are sufficient measures implemented by the government to secure / establish an improvement of the ecological parameters of the relevant Natura 2000 areas). As a result, the possibilities for using internal netting has been significantly reduced.

We furthermore note that parties have until 2030 to obtain a Nature permit – on the basis of the new criteria – for existing projects that were realised on the basis of internal netting, but without a Nature permit (as this was legally sound until these recent court rulings).

We expect that new legislation will be introduced to implement these court rulings, but nevertheless these aforementioned rulings will remain the current legal position in relation to internal netting.

As of 1 January 2025, new regulations will take effect to better protect tenants from excessively high rental prices. These rules are introduced under the Wet Betaalbare Huur and the amendments to the Wet Maximering Huurprijsverhogingen. The key changes are outlined below: 

Maximum rental price

Landlords will no longer be permitted to rent out self-contained housing units at prices exceeding the legally permitted maximum. This maximum rental price is determined based on specific, predefined criteria, including the quality and features of the property. 

Information obligation for landlords

Landlords are required to provide tenants with written information on the following:

• How the rental price was determined (e.g., based on the quality of the property).
• The maximum allowable rental price at the start of the lease agreement.
• Any additional charges (such as for extra amenities), along with evidence that these charges are legally permitted. 

Enforcement by municipalities

Municipalities will be responsible for enforcing these rules and, starting 1 January 2025, can intervene if landlords charge rents exceeding the legal limit.
These measures aim to protect tenants from unfairly high rental prices, enhance transparency in rental price calculations, and improve housing affordability.

CROW will launch the updated UAV-GC 2025 on 14 January 2025. This revision addresses the evolving needs of integrated contract forms, where contractors are responsible for both design and execution, assuming greater risk—particularly design risk.

A key distinction between UAV-GC and traditional UAV contracts is that the contractor determines how the works will be realized, while clients have less direct involvement in the execution under UAV-GC.

The key changes in UAV-GC 2025 include:

• The obligation for parties to act proactively and interactively;
• Information provided by the client;
• The contractor's duty to warn;
• Liability before and after delivery;
• Formation of the agreement;
• Changes;
• Innovations;
• Dispute resolution;
• The removal of provisions related to the "life cycle" approach, which were included in the draft version submitted for consultation in 2021.

For leases exempt from VAT that include a service charge component, it should be re-evaluated whether the service charges will remain VAT-taxed (or VAT-exempt) after 1 January 2025, as the policy on this will change from that date. This could have a significant impact on both lessors and lessees and should, therefore, be addressed in a timely manner.

From 1 January 2025, the policy on supplementary VAT returns will be significantly tightened, with penalties introduced for failing to file a supplementary VAT return within eight weeks of identifying the need for a correction.