The Affordable Rent Act

In July 2024, the Dutch government introduced the Wet Betaalbare Huur (Affordable Rent Act) to make mid-segment rental housing more accessible. The law extended rent regulation to a much larger share of the market, capping what landlords can charge for properties that score below a certain threshold in the Dutch points system.

The intention was to bring down rents for middle-income tenants. In practice, the law has triggered a structural shift that has made the rental market tighter than ever.

Faced with lower rental income and rising tax burdens, private landlords have responded by selling their properties rather than renting them out at regulated rates. According to Dutch Land Registry data, investors sold over 65,000 rental homes in 2025 while purchasing just 27,000, a net loss of roughly 38,000 homes from the rental market in a single year. And it's not just small-scale landlords exiting: even large institutional investors are divesting portfolios worth billions of euros.

What this means for you: The number of available rental homes keeps falling. In Q1 2026, 1,869 more properties left the Pararius platform than were added. At the same time, 42% of all listings in the unregulated sector now carry a monthly rent above €2,000, up from 36.5% just a year earlier. So while regulated rents may be lower on paper, the homes they apply to are increasingly hard to find, and the unregulated homes that remain are drifting into higher price brackets.

The Supply Gap

The single biggest driver of the crisis is a shortage of physical housing. As of early 2026, the Netherlands is approximately 410,000 homes short of what its population needs, up from 400,000 the year before. That deficit now represents 4.8% of the national housing stock.

Why isn't construction keeping up? A combination of factors: nitrogen emission regulations that delay building permits, high construction material costs, lengthy municipal planning processes (averaging 8 to 12 years from project initiation to completion), and an overloaded electricity grid that complicates new developments. In 2025, only around 69,200 new homes were completed. Far below the government's target of 100,000 per year.

The pressure is most intense in the Randstad which consists of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague, but it has steadily spread to cities that were once considered affordable alternatives. Zwolle, Dordrecht, and other mid-sized cities have seen sharp rent increases as demand spills outward.

Pararius tip: Look beyond the obvious. Cities with strong rail connections to major employment hubs, such as Almere, Leiden, Amersfoort, Eindhoven, and Arnhem, often offer more availability and meaningfully lower rents per square metre. Apeldoorn (€15.28/m²) and Enschede (€15.27/m²) cost roughly half of what you'd pay in Amsterdam (€28.53/m²).

Rental Prices in 2026: The Numbers That Matter

Despite government intervention, rents in the unregulated sector continue to climb. In Q1 2026, new tenants in the Netherlands paid an average of €21.12 per square metre. A 7.3% increase compared to the same period last year. That growth rate now outpaces both house price appreciation (5.1%) and general inflation (2.1%).

Here's what that looks like in practice across the major cities:

• Amsterdam: €28.53/m² — an 80m² apartment averages €2,300–2,500/month
• Amstelveen: €24.17/m²
• Haarlem: €24.05/m²
• Utrecht: approximately €21–22/m²
• Rotterdam: approximately €21/m²
• The Hague: approximately €21/m²

Furnished properties, which now make up the largest share of listings for the first time (43.4% in Q1 2026), typically command a significant premium over unfurnished units.

Budgeting rule of thumb: Most landlords require your gross monthly income to equal at least three times the rent. For a property at €1,800/month, that means earning at least €5,400 gross per month. Factor in utilities (€250–350/month for a family apartment), mandatory health insurance (averaging €159/month in 2026), and other costs of living, and you should aim to allocate no more than 30–35% of your net income to rent alone.

The End of Temporary Contracts

If you rented in the Netherlands before mid-2024, you may have had a two-year temporary contract, which the standard arrangement for many expats. That era is over.

Since the Wet vaste huurcontracten (Fixed Rental Contracts Act) took effect in July 2024, indefinite-term contracts have become the legal default. Temporary contracts are now only permitted in a narrow set of circumstances. The last temporary contracts issued under the old rules will expire by July 2026, after which virtually all new tenancies will be permanent from day one.

This is good news for tenant security, but it has made landlords considerably more selective. Because ending a permanent contract is difficult under Dutch law, landlords now scrutinise applicants more carefully than ever. They want tenants with stable, verifiable income and a strong professional profile.

What this means for your application: Think of the screening process as a job interview for your home. Landlords increasingly prioritise candidates who can demonstrate financial reliability upfront. Your dossier should be polished and complete before you even start viewing properties.

How to Succeed in This Market

In a market this tight, a passive approach of browsing listings and sending a quick message — won't cut it. The expats who secure good homes in 2026 are the ones who treat their search like a strategic project.

Prepare a professional application dossier. Have these ready to send within hours of viewing a property: your employment contract, recent payslips (at least three months), a valid ID, an employer's letter confirming your role and salary, and a brief personal introduction explaining who you are and why you're relocating. If you're self-employed, include your most recent tax returns and an accountant's statement.

Understand whether the price is fair. Use market data to assess whether a listed rent is reasonable for the location, property size, and energy label. Properties with better energy labels (A or higher) tend to command higher rents but come with significantly lower utility costs. A trade-off worth calculating.

Act fast, but verify your source. When supply is scarce and competition is high, rental scams multiply. Be sceptical of listings that seem too good to be true, and always work through a platform that verifies its agents and listings. On Pararius, all listings are placed by professional, verified rental agents — so you know you're dealing with a legitimate party.

Consider timing. The Dutch rental market peaks in late summer (August–September) when students and corporate relocations coincide, and again in early spring. If your move is flexible, searching in November–December or early January may give you slightly less competition.

The Bigger Picture

The Dutch rental crisis in 2026 is the product of converging forces: well-intentioned regulation that reduced supply, a construction pipeline that can't keep pace with population growth, and a decade of underbuilding that has left the country hundreds of thousands of homes short. None of these problems will resolve quickly.

But the market is not impossible. Expats who arrive prepared, with realistic expectations, a strong dossier, and a clear understanding of how the market works, find homes every day. The key is to move from searching to positioning: know your budget, know the data, and be ready to act when the right property appears.