What should you watch out for when making an offer on a home in the Netherlands?

Work out your ceiling before you name a number

The costs of buying come out of your own savings, because they cannot be financed. On an existing home of 425,000 euro at the 2% rate, with a mortgage and a buying agent, they total about 16,032 euro - 3.8% of the price. Subtract that from your savings first; what is left is what you can actually bid without a hole appearing at the notary.

• Check first whether the asking price says k.k. or v.o.n. With v.o.n. the seller bears the transfer tax and the deed of delivery, so the same bid buys you a different total.
• Only two amounts are fixed: the transfer tax percentage and the Kadaster tariff of 103.50 euro per electronically registered KIK deed. Ask for quotations on the rest before you bid, not after.

The 555,000 euro cliff in 2026

The starters exemption applies to a buyer who is of age and under 35, has not used the exemption before, will live in the home themselves for a longer period, and buys a home worth no more than 555,000 euro in 2026 - it was 525,000 euro in 2025. There is no partial exemption. One euro over the limit and the exemption is gone in full: 2% over the whole value. At a value of 555,500 euro that is 11,110 euro instead of nothing, which makes the difference between a bid of 555,000 and 556,000 euro far larger than a thousand euro.

• The age condition is tested at the transfer before the notary, not at the signing of the purchase agreement. If you turn 35 in between, the completion date decides.
• Buying together and only one of you meets the conditions? The exemption then applies only to that person's share.
• The tax authority takes the highest value: the purchase price or the market value. A friendly price below market value does not bring you under the limit.

Word the offer with the tax base in mind

Movable items taken over from the seller - a fitted kitchen appliance, sun blinds, floor coverings - fall outside the transfer tax base provided they are valued separately and realistically. Naming them separately in the offer, at defensible amounts, is legitimate; inflating them to shrink the taxable base is not, and the tax authority looks at what the items are actually worth.

Mistakes that cost money at the bidding stage

• Budgeting the maximum mortgage as the maximum bid, and forgetting the roughly 3.8% of kosten koper that cannot be financed.
• Bidding just over 555,000 euro while relying on the starters exemption, which then lapses completely.
• Assuming the 2% rate applies while you do not intend to live in the home yourself. Since 1 January 2026 a home that does not become your main residence is taxed at 8%, down from 10.4% up to and including 2025.
• Comparing a k.k. asking price with a v.o.n. one as if they were the same number.

How 4property helps agents

An agent who records a search profile as a price range keeps sending buyers to homes they cannot complete on. In 4property the search profile holds the total budget, including the room the kosten koper take up, and new listings are matched against that figure. The property card carries the delivery form, k.k. or v.o.n., so it is identical on every channel, and viewings and feedback are logged per property and per colleague - which is what lets an agent see quickly which buyer is genuinely close to a bid.