4 Trends for greater living comfort

Your home comfort is our job. Our employees are on the road every day to make sure you can live comfortably. Senior account manager Bart Baltussen therefore keeps a close eye on the trends and wishes of our tenants and the market. Bart: "Looking and listening carefully is an important part of my job."

As account manager, Bart is ultimately responsible for managing Bouwinvest's residential properties in the Amsterdam region. Together with his team, he spots opportunities and improvements to increase tenants' living comfort.

Foto: Bart Baltussen

Talking to tenants

"To really understand what tenants want, I regularly talk to them," says Bart. "Several housing complexes have a tenants' association that represents the building. In this way, we involve tenants more and more in decisions and discover what we can do to improve their living enjoyment. We also conduct a tenant satisfaction survey every year and ask new and departing tenants for feedback. Every year, we translate this input into a concrete action plan with clear goals. I also find it important to be on site regularly and take the time to talk to people and spot things myself."

Quite a few things have changed in recent years that affect tenants' wishes. Bart has spotted the following 4 trends and explains how vb%26amp;t responds to them.

Trend 1: self-regulate

"The mindset of tenants is changing more and more towards wanting to be helped quickly. Therefore, at vb%26amp;t we facilitate a tenant portal where people can arrange many things themselves from the comfort of their armchair. Even in the evening and at weekends. The tenant portal is still under development and the aim is that in many cases our tenants will no longer need an employee. They will then be able to schedule repairs themselves, for example. The tenant portal is also an important communication channel: through it, we can keep tenants informed about what we are doing and when they can expect results."

Photos: Bart Baltussen

Trend 2: increasingly electric

To reduce CO2 emissions, the government has stipulated that cooking on gas should no longer exist by 2050. With gas prices rising, Bart notices that more and more tenants are concerned with this issue: "We get a lot of questions about sustainability. We do this in phases. On average, we replace a kitchen every 15 to 20 years, and nowadays all tenants get an induction hob. When a tenant leaves a single-family house, we put solar panels on the roof as standard."

"We also get more and more questions about charging stations for electric cars. If you live in a single-family house, you can just submit an application. In apartment complexes, it is sometimes more complicated. This desire is often not taken into account during construction, and then we have to deal with fire safety. In parking garages, we therefore always have to have a proper study carried out on the best way to install charging stations. This sometimes takes a little longer than we would like."

Trend 3: the ideal layout of a home

To make houses attractive to tenants, Bart also gives advice on the layout of the house: "In the past, flats were very much compartmentalised. Nowadays, people prefer a large open space, with the kitchen involved in the living area. To make older homes still attractive, I sometimes recommend breaking through a wall and installing a new kitchen. This might make the apartment slightly more expensive, but many people are happy to pay for extra living comfort. We also notice that flats with two bedrooms are much more in demand. This is because working from home has been embraced in recent years. Many people like having a separate study to keep work and private life separate."

Photo: Bart Baltussen

Trend 4: shared mobility

"Every target group has different requirements," Bart explains. "In Amsterdam, we manage a number of buildings where a lot of young people live. They live and work in the city and for this reason often don't have a car themselves. In these kinds of buildings, we work together with Hely to offer shared mobility. For a fee, tenants can use shared cars, electric bicycles and cargo bikes. You then only pay when you actually rent a vehicle, with no fixed monthly costs. This way, you will soon be cheaper and it is also sustainable, of course. That suits this target group very well."

You can read this interview in the latest edition of the rental magazine 'Buitengewoon Huren 2022-2023'. Extraordinary Renting is packed with information of interest to you as a (potential) tenant. We take you along our extensive range of complexes. From Hellevoetsluis to Doetinchem and from Koog aan de Zaan to Maastricht: all in one well-organised magazine.

This magazine also gives you lots of good ideas and practical tips;

Get inspired by Charlotte Mixt's interior design tips, discover how living room concept The Villy makes living in the new building The Roofs in The Hague more enjoyable and fun, and read the interview with senior account manager Bart Baltussen about the trends we anticipate for even more living comfort.

Curious? Then click here for the online magazine! We wish you much reading pleasure.

%26nbsp;