Countries · Netherlands
What to check in the Netherlands before you sign.
There is a structural shortage of homes. Most purchases close above the asking price. Treating that price as the market value means getting it wrong every time.
What costs the most money in the Netherlands
72 percent of all flats sold in the fourth quarter of 2025 went above the asking price, by 4.7 percent on average. The calculated housing shortage stands at 384,000 homes, that is 4.6 percent of the stock.
Source: NVM, January 2026, and Volkshuisvesting Nederland, 2026
Purchase costs
4 to 6%
of the purchase price, on top of the price in the listing.
- Transfer tax, owner-occupied2%
- Transfer tax, investment (from 1 January 2026)8 %
- Buyers under 35, up to €555,0000 %
- Kadaster registration, per deedfrom €103.50
- Notary and your own agentfreely negotiated
Source: Belastingdienst and Kadaster, 2026 rates. Notary and agent fees are not set by law. The overall range is therefore calculated from the individual items, and it is not an officially published figure.
The trap for tenants
A rent is not permitted merely because it stands in the contract. The points system alone decides the level. The extended affordable rent act has applied since 1 July 2024. The initial rent can be reviewed with binding effect within six months of the tenancy starting.
In 2025 tenants got back more than €15 million in overpaid rent and service charges through the rent tribunal.
Source: Huurcommissie, Woonbond, 2025
Energy and the duty to renovate
The energy label has been compulsory for sale and letting since 2008. Selling or handing over without a valid label costs a fine of €515, double that for a company. In the points system for rents, poor classes cost points and therefore rent: class E minus four, F minus nine, G minus fifteen points.
Source: Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport and Volkshuisvesting Nederland, 2024
Certificate validity: 10 years
What to watch for in the Netherlands in particular
Living space has to be stated according to the industry-wide measuring instruction. On 13 July 2018 the Hoge Raad held that the seller's agent is liable to the buyer for not following it. The usual disclaimer in the sales brochure was expressly rejected. In the case decided, nine square metres out of a stated eighty were missing.
Source: Hoge Raad, 13.07.2018
Official maps in the Netherlands
6 map layers lie directly over your property.
Not as an average for the district, but at your exact address, with a legend and a visible source. Every layer can be switched on separately.
Check it yourself
The official bodies in the Netherlands.
These bodies are grouped by category: property and encumbrances, energy, natural hazards and more. The report on your property names the responsible bodies, with the date checked and a link. A figure you cannot verify is not a figure, it is a claim.
over 500
official data sources
4
categories
What this costs
€15m
came back to tenants in 2025 in rent and service charges they had overpaid. What counts is the points system alone, not the contract.
Source: Huurcommissie and Woonbond, annual report 2025
72%
of all homes sold in the last quarter of 2025 went for more than the asking price, on average 4.7 percent more. Here the asking price is a floor rather than a starting point.
Source: NVM, the Dutch estate agents' association, January 2026
These numbers arise after the signature. The report does the maths before it.
The market in the Netherlands
Just under 239,000 existing homes sold in 2025, the highest figure since 2017, at an average price of €480,000. In the fourth quarter alone 67,200 properties changed hands, with a market turnover of over €32.5 billion.
Source: Kadaster, woningmarkt 4e kwartaal 2025
A real dossier from this country
See what the analysis found on an actual listing in the Netherlands — every figure with its source.
Open the example dossierOther countries