I'm a freelance journalist currently residing in the Netherlands.
Dutch housing: Some basic pointers
17 October 2011, by Brandon H.
So, you are thinking of moving to the Netherlands and you need an apartment. In the past, you may have used websites like Craigslist or classified ads to track down a place. After poking around online, you realise that things work differently here. There is a good chance you are going to need to contact a housing agency.
Rental options can be limited in the Netherlands and, depending on the city, they can be hard to come by. Making things more complicated, direct landlord / tenant agreements, commonplace in the United States, are a rarity. Most seek the aid of agencies to help them track down an apartment and to put them in contact with a landlord. Naturally, there are advantages and disadvantages to this system.
The first step is to sign up with an agency and provide them with copies of your job contract or a bank statement. Sometimes they will require a small fee up front. Afterwards, they do most of the legwork for apartment hunters. They root through listings, do their best to match tenants with appropriate housing and assist with leases. They will make appointments with landlords and, in some cases, may even spend an afternoon driving their clients from location to location as they consider which option is the best fit.
This system makes finding housing easier for tenants but it does not come cheap. If you are coming from the US or elsewhere in Europe, the fees they charge can come as a shock, especially for those living on a budget. It is not uncommon for agencies to charge a full month’s rent for their services and upfront registration fees can run upwards of 40 euros. Once you add in the VAT, the country’s sales tax, the cost of finding an apartment alone can get spendy, real quick. Once that’s out of the way, many Dutch landlords typically require a refundable deposit that can cost as much as two months rent, in addition to the first month’s rent itself.
It should go without saying that, above all else, it is important to allow yourself enough time to research agencies. If you are operating on a tight deadline, tracking down an apartment can be a nightmare, as recent expat "Isabella" discovered earlier this year. Originally from Italy, she had spent the past few years living in Dublin. After accepting a job in Sloterdijk, she only had a few weeks to find housing in the Netherlands.
Isabella first consulted a variety of websites for advice. The agency she wound up with charged her a standard one month fee for their services that cost her 899 euros. On top of that, they required a 200 euro "stop fee" to prevent the small Pijp district apartment she was interested in from being rented to another client. The up-front costs came as a surprise. "I never paid agency fees in Ireland or Italy," she said in a recent interview, asking that her real name not be used in this article.
Photo by Flickr user Frank de Kleine
The agent promised her that the apartment would be cleaned, that it would be furnished and that it would also contain a television and a microwave. "It was in very poor condition," Isabella said. "There’s no sink in the bathroom and no pipes for a washing machine." It also reeked of cigarette smoke and the furniture was covered in cat scratches.
With time running short, she reluctantly signed a 6 month contract. After Isabella moved in, it took several days for her landlord to send someone over to give the place a scrubbing. She has been living there for months now and the TV has yet to arrive.
Worse yet, Isabella’s paying an additional 200 Euro "rental fee" every month for the apartment’s worn furniture and limited appliances. By the time her contract is up, she will have paid 1.200 euros for things that she could have purchased from a secondhand shop for a fraction of the price.
On top of all of this, she is required to pay another monthly fee that allegedly goes to a company that is supposed to keep the hallways and stairwells in the building clean. To her knowledge, they have never shown up. Instead, the halls remain dirty and are stuffed with her neighbours’ bikes and rubbish. Needless to say, she will not be renewing her lease.
"I am not sure the services I received were worth the agent fee," Isabella said. "Hopefully, the two months deposit will be returned at the end of the contract." Under better circumstances, Isabella would have had more time to find a better agency and an apartment.
As with any industry, there are definitely some bad apples out there. What have your own encounters with Dutch housing agencies been like? Have you had positive experiences or negative ones? Feel free to share your memories and thoughts in the comments area below.
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WRITE A COMMENT
I wish this article would have rounded out by writing about a positive experience as well, otherwise it just leaves you with such a negative taste in your mouth.
Just like everything, the first time can be quite challenging.. You need to invest time for sure!
In the last month, I went through the process of finding a temporary apartment for a short holiday and also finding a longer-term apartment for my family.
I came to Holland on holiday to look for work. I landed on Sunday and had a place to stay for my first week and a half. I started in on the various apartment rental websites.
I found tons of apartments on there available through several rental agencies. I sent email notices to several stating that I was interested in viewing their apartments. Few returned my email. I viewed several apartments that first week. One was far too expensive for the dingy furniture and tons of open, wasted space in the apartment. One perfect apartment, which had been available the day before, was taken by the time I saw it. After contacting another agency for another apartment which was already gone, they informed me of a place I could be interested in. I scheduled an appointment for that afternoon and accepted the apartment on sight. That was Friday of the same week.
So, it is possible to find a good apartment quickly. However, the housing market here is tight, so you also need to know exactly what you want and willing to make an offer quickly.
I found a job in a couple of weeks. After that came the task of finding an apartment for my family. I started looking Monday afternoon.
Sending emails to the various rental agencies didn't work so well in my first search, so I chose this time to spend more time on the phone calling them. That worked somewhat better. More often than not, agents in charge of the renting the house either weren't in the office or deflected my calls by having me fill out some form on their website. It was outright frustrating attempting to reach a rental agency for some amazing house, especially considering the speed with which some properties get rented. There is definitely pressure to move quickly.
I got the impression that the rental agencies were working more for the homeowners rather than the renters who pay their fees. Presumably, if you are paying the fee, then you are their customer. But, with agencies constantly ignoring my calls or giving me the run-around, that certainly didn't seem the case.
Again, I looked at several listings. This time, I ran into the problem of defining the number of rooms in an apartment. I'm married with two kids. I want 3 bedrooms. So, I look online for 3 bedrooms. When I showed up at two different apartments, instead of 3 bedrooms, I see 2. I ask the rental agent, "where's the third bedroom?" They then explain that there is no third bedroom. No, they included the living room in the total room count. (Somehow, the bathrooms, the kitchen, the attic, and the utility room are never also included in that count. Only the living room.)
I changed my search. I dug deep into the details of each apartment listing to make sure that the long description specifically mentioned 3 sleepkamers. Otherwise, you run the risk of seeing apartments you don't like.
Further, the pictures of various apartments aren't always true. One apartment showed a picture of a utility room with a washer and dryer. When I showed up, the washer was missing. When I asked about the washer and pointed out the picture, the agent got indignant. He pointed at other pictures with the previous tenant's furniture and told me I won't get that either, but the picture still shows the apartment. Fine. I should have asked him whether the refrigerator and stove were included, but I didn't think of that until later.
I found a place. I told the agent I was interested. He wanted my passport, my family's passports, and my rental contracts. I sent over copies of all those. Then I waited. And, I waited. The agent said he wanted to get in touch with the homeowner. Unbeknownst to me, there was another couple who also wanted the house. The owner was attempting to decide on which couple to rent it to. I eventually won due to the fact that I had a solid employment contract while the other couple were opening their own business.
By Friday of that same week, I had my apartment contract signed.
In both cases, it took me less than a week to find perfect apartments which completed fulfilled my needs. Spending additional time in a search helps, but it's not critical. You can find a place fast and quickly. But, you must also move fast and quickly and not depend on rental agencies doing all the work for you.
Hollandy, I think the article paints a level picture and even points out the mistakes that Isabella made. Maybe you missed this part....
"Afterwards, they do most of the legwork for apartment hunters. They root through listings, do their best to match tenants with appropriate housing and assist with leases. They will make appointments with landlords and, in some cases, may even spend an afternoon driving their clients from location to location as they consider which option is the best fit."
If anything, it's pretty nice to rental agencies, which charge way too much for their "services." 800 Euro to do something that anyone with Google could do in any other country in the world? Puhleaze.