Buying a home in the Netherlands can feel overwhelming. The mortgage process is filled with rules, exceptions, and difficult-to-understand financial jargon. Even locals often struggle to understand it. For newcomers or expats, it’s especially confusing to figure out how much you can actually borrow. Imagine you’ve found your dream home, only to find out that you can’t borrow enough to be able to afford it.
That number; your borrowing capacity, is the foundation of your house searching process. Without it, you can’t make realistic offers or know what price range to look in. But how is it calculated, and what’s changed for 2025?
The main factors that control your borrowing amount
Banks and mortgage advisors calculate your borrowing capacity based on a few key factors:
- Income: Your gross yearly salary, including holiday pay and bonuses earned.
- Ongoing debt: Student loans, credit cards, or car leases reduce your limit.
- Interest rate and mortgage length: Higher interest or a shorter term means you can borrow less money.
- Energy label of the property: Houses with higher energy ratings (B, A, A++..) can add thousands of euros on top of your mortgage limit. These amounts are concretely determined.
- Your residence status: EU/EEA citizens have easier access to Dutch mortgages; non-EU residents might have stricter requirements.
- Down payment: You can borrow up to 100% of the home’s value, but you’ll need savings for extra costs such as taxes and notary fees, which are about 4–6% (Hypotheker, 2025).
What’s New in 2025?
A couple rules have changed that might affect how much you can borrow this year.
- NHG limit raised: According to ABN AMRO (2025), the Nationale Hypotheek Garantie covers homes up to €450,000, or €461,100 if you invest in energy-saving measures. It also became slightly cheaper, as the NHG fee dropped to 0,4% of the loan amount.
- Energy label advantage: Mister Mortgage (2024) writes that Borrowers can take a slightly higher loan for energy-efficient homes (label A or B). Less efficient homes reduce the maximum amount.
- Support for single buyers: Individuals without a partner can borrow about €17,000 more than before, according to DutchReview (2025).
In short: the Dutch system rewards energy efficiency and supports first-time or single buyers, while keeping borrowing realistic for everyone.
Understanding the real costs
Even though you can finance 100% of the home’s value, the extra costs are your own responsibility. Think of transfer tax, appraisal and notary fees, and maybe even renovation costs. Together, they often add up to several thousands of euros. It’s important to know that you can not finance these costs with the mortgage, you’ll need to pay these out of your own pocket, so keep that in mind.
The Dutch government regularly reminds us locals:
“Let op, geld lenen kost geld.”
Borrowing money, even for a home, always comes with long-term financial responsibility.
How to calculate your borrowing capacity
If you want a quick idea of what you can afford, here’s how to start:
- Add up your yearly income, and that of your partner if that fits your situation.
- List all of your existing debts to see how they affect your limit.
- Check the current interest rate; it influences how much you can borrow.
- Look up your property’s energy label, if you already have an eye on a house.
- Use a trusted online calculator. Most major banks offer them, including ABN AMRO, ING and Rabobank.
These tools give a realistic range, although professional advice is still very much recommended if you have a complex financial situation or income from abroad.
Your next step
Once you have a rough idea of your borrowing limit, you can focus on homes that fit your budget and avoid unpleasant surprises during the approval process.
To make things even easier for you, we’ve built our own simple mortgage calculator. On our website, you can enter your income and instantly see an estimate of how much you could borrow for your future home, here in the Netherlands. It’s a quick and simple way to take the first step toward buying your house, without getting overwhelmed easily. Please note, that this tool is made to give you a step in the right direction, but is not your definitive borrowing limit. This will be calculated accurately when talking to a professional, which is your next step.
We hope to have helped you figure out the first steps toward getting your mortgage, and wish you the best of luck toward your new house!
