Between 1997 and 2012 temporary tenancies emerged and evolved as a pragmatic policy instrument within the Dutch housing sector. In this article, based on analyses of policy documents, media content and parliamentary archives, we argue that this was a period of implicit, technocratic erosion of the existing permanent rental norm, creating the political and material foundations for the emergence of a new, more explicit ideological discourse that has been evident since 2013. We then explore these most recent developments, in which temporary tenancies are now championed as a catalyst for structural housing market reform, and comment on the possibility that the recent proposal to introduce time-limited tenancies as a normal form of tenure, will lead to permanent, rather than temporary, contracts becoming marginal in Dutch society.