Rotterdam in development

64 R O T T E R D A M I N D E V E L O P M E N T | 2 0 1 8 IN RECENT YEARS, THE PUPILS IN ROTTERDAM SOUTH HAVE BEEN DOING BETTER AND BETTER. MARCO PASTORS, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL PROGRAMME ROTTERDAM SOUTH (NPRZ), IS DELIGHTED: THIS IS ONE OF THE INVESTMENT PROGRAMME’S FIRST SUCCESSES. ROTTERDAM SOUTH IS CLEARLY ON THE UP. n addition to the NPRZ, other long-term, committed investors in Rotterdam South include the Municipality of Rotterdam and the national government. The aim is to raise living standards in this long-neglected district on the south bank of the Maas to the average standard for the four large municipalities. The NPRZ’s efforts are focused on three pillars that underpin the programme: school, work and living. The small core organisation of the NPRZ brings all the relevant disciplines and parties together, mediates, monitors and acts as a catalyst to get new developments moving. “It is precisely that integrated approach that appeals so much,” says Marco Pastors, who has been NPRZ’s Director since it was founded in 2012. “Everything is interconnected, the different aspects reinforce each other and that adds an extra dynamic.” The approach to the aspect of living is a good example. For many reasons whose origins are in the past, Rotterdam South has a large and one-sided stock of mainly cheaper homes with an average real estate value in most neighbourhoods of €90,000. The goal is to achieve a more varied housing stock, thereby improving the living climate. Residents who want to move up the property ladder will be able to do that in their own neighbourhood, rather than having to leave the city because there are no higher-value homes in Rotterdam South, as was the case in the past. The other pillars, school and work, play an important supporting role: better education and sufficient working neighbours are ties that keep residents in an area. “Good schools are an important stabilising factor,” says Pastors, “so it makes sense to invest in them. It is a very encouraging sign that the schools in Rotterdam South are doing better.” ON THE RIGHT TRACK By 2030, 35,000 homes will have been overhauled in the NPRZ’s seven ‘focus neighbourhoods’, the areas with the most severe problems and which attract the most attention. Some of those homes (12,000) belong to corporations, important partners in the NPRZ. The remaining 23,000 homes are privately owned. A key intention is for 13,000 of this last group of homes to be renovated; the rest will either be knocked together or demolished and replaced. “This enormous challenge involves a