The Hague is a beautiful city where many internationals live. Generally spoken it is a safe city and its location near the sea is superb. Many of our clients wish to live in The Hague. However, a local regulation makes a home search challenging for many people who would like to spend less than € 1.600,00 on their monthly rent. The regulation is implemented to give people with a lower salary level the chance to rent affordable houses.
Housing regulation
Social housing in the Netherlands uses a points system. Points are awarded for the size of the house, its condition, the facilities, and whether the house is self-contained or not. The rent for social housing is based on the number of points the house attains. On the ‘free’ rental market, where almost all of our clients find a house, this points system is not used. However, the municipality of The Hague now has a housing regulation that is linked to the points system. For a house of 185 points or less an ‘affordable housing permit’ is required.
The criteria for obtaining this housing permit are that the income of the tenant may not exceed € 57,053.00 (single-person household) and € 67,053.00 (multi-person household) per year. The permit must be requested by the tenant and costs for applying for the permit are for the account of the tenant too and amount to € 45.05.
When you apply for an affordable housing permit, you will need the following documents:
-Housing permit application form
-The most recent income specification(s) for all members of your household for the last 3 months.
-A copy of the rental contract, signed by the landlord and the tenant.
Usually within 6 weeks a permit will be granted to the tenant.
From experience we can say that most properties qualified as middle rent segment nowadays in the city of The Hague (Euro 720-Euro 1700) will require an housing permit.
Yearly income above € 57.000/€ 67.053?
If your yearly salary is over € 57.000/€ 67.053 then the municipality of The Hague assumes that you can pay at least € 1.600,00 per month for your rental property. There is only little offer in the category of € 1.600,00, what we see is that prices for houses in The Hague that do not require an affordable housing permit start at € 1.700,00 – € 1.750,00.
Many of our clients commute and want to rent a small, reasonably priced yet self-contained house in The Hague. Under the current regulations this is not possible anymore. In order to get this house it may be possible that you/we will have to look at other cities in the proximity of The Hague, like Rotterdam, Gouda, Leiden. Alternatively a monthly rental budget higher than € 1.600,00 will be a solution.
