VORM and OMRT join forces in realization of affordable housing

20% cheaper and 50% faster development and construction can and should be done to provide affordable housing for everyone. That is the objective of Ostate B.V., founded by software house OMRT and property developer and construction company VORM. The housing market in cities is locked, with the result that about 50% of our population has no chance of finding a new home. Ostate sees an opportunity to reform our sector when it comes to affordable housing while also developing sustainably.

The need for affordable housing is great, the supply is small. Young people postpone their adult lives, partners who want to divorce cannot, and important professional groups who work in the city cannot live there. The latter results in major mobility and spatial issues due to increased travel pressure to and from the cities. Add to this the overburdened labor market in our sector, increasing performance requirements, extremely high raw material costs and the nitrogen issue, and the need for transformation is indispensable. Only by making housing cheaper and faster will we solve our problem of not enough good affordable housing.

Ostate makes housing affordable

With Ostate, OMRT and VORM are joining forces. They are pursuing a system that will eventually lead to a super predictable and perfect development and construction flow of 5,000 affordable apartments per year. "Realizing affordable housing is achievable by shaking up the entire development and construction process, eliminating unnecessary links in the entire chain and organizing the design process intelligently. Our goal: to raise the production of affordable housing to a level that is currently unthinkable," says Hans Meurs, General Director at VORM.

Efficiency with parametric design

"What we no longer do with Ostate: manually develop a completely unique design for each home and tailor the manufacture of the (90% unique) components accordingly. What we do do: standardize through parametric design in terms of structural elements. We do not standardize the design itself. That way you maintain speed and we offer a unique solution for every project," says Jasper Spiegeler, Strategic Director at OMRT. "With parametric design, a design is automatically generated and calculated based on entered requirements, while regulations, existing data and relationships between components are also taken into account. This allows us to quickly get to an affordable and manufacturable unique top-notch design, while including performance on sustainability and comfort. And that's without 100 different suppliers and 20 consultants," adds Andreja Andrejevic, Technical Director at OMRT.

15,000 affordable housing units per year in the Netherlands

VORM aims to realize 5,000 affordable apartments every year starting in 2025. This is why VORM established VORM 2050 in May 2019. A new VORM company with new employees, focused on affordable housing. VORM 2050's first step in the realization towards affordable housing was the establishment of Homeblocks, together with Giesbers. A factory for bathrooms and technical rooms. That is no more than a first step. VORM's ambitions go much further. VORM itself wants to create 5,000 affordable apartments every year starting in 2025. "If we develop and build in this way, we can easily supply 70,000 affordable homes a year to all the housing seekers in the Netherlands," states Aldo de Vries, Strategic Operations Manager at VORM. "Ultimately, with Ostate, we are going to get to 15,000 affordable homes per year. This is what we are going to achieve".