Bedrijveninvesteringszones — The Netherlands' Self-Funded Business Improvement District Law

The Wet op de bedrijveninvesteringszones (BIZ Act) took effect on 1 January 2015, giving Dutch municipalities a permanent legal instrument to designate a shopping street or business park as a Bedrijveninvesteringszone (BIZ) at the request of local entrepreneurs. It formalised an earlier 2009 experimental law (Experimentenwet BI-zones).

The design aims to let local businesses that want joint improvements — such as street cleaning, lighting, security and area marketing — self-tax through a compulsory, vote-triggered levy, specifically to prevent large retailers free-riding on improvements funded by smaller neighbours, a common failure of voluntary business associations.

Within a BIZ, the municipality levies a compulsory contribution on all property users in the zone once a required threshold of local businesses votes in favour, and channels proceeds to a foundation or association that executes an improvement plan designed by the entrepreneurs themselves.

The 2009 experimental law, expected to produce around 30 pilot zones, in practice produced more than 100 before the permanent law took effect. By the mid-2020s more than 400 BIZs were active nationwide, financing roughly €160 million in additional local investment, entirely from the compulsory local levy with no ongoing central-government subsidy. Amsterdam alone grew from 49 BIZs in 2017 to 91 in 2026.

Evaluators have flagged two risks worth tracking: municipalities could quietly reduce baseline street maintenance knowing a BIZ will compensate, and the funding is almost entirely oriented toward commercial property interests rather than wider social-inclusion goals.