Not just commercial landlord social housing; it applies to the whole local council area. Just to give you a generally applicable example, i.e. when the local council want to build up a certain area that used to be problematic area (high crime rate etc), they increase the requirements to move there, thus making it more difficult to move there. Those who wants to register there need to already secure employment and show that they are favourable tenants economically.
I haven’t tried any other EU country apart from the NL. Although I think it’s bureaucratic, but I do find it to be efficient and systematic. Anyway, many of the problem won’t usually be experienced by the local and expats but by the newcomers e.g. non-local students in the Netherlands who is transitioning to working life there. It becomes more difficult because the real housing in the NL are very limited and in high demand.
In the UK it was really easy. No need to register at all.