How to find an apartment in the Netherlands as an expat

How do I find an apartment in the Netherlands?

The search has the same shape in every Dutch city. You fix a budget and a date, you search the rental sites every day, you go to viewings, you apply, and you sign a written contract. Two things make it harder than it sounds. Rents are rising, and the municipality wants proof of address within five days of your arrival, so the contract also decides when you can register. See our first 90 days guide for the order of the steps.

Our research marks housing as the main pain point of a move to the Netherlands. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported that rents rose 4.4% in July 2026, with 4.3% in Amsterdam, 4.5% in Utrecht and 4.7% in Rotterdam (CBS StatLine 83163ENG and 83162ENG, recorded in our research on 5 October 2026). We have no CBS figure for The Hague or Eindhoven in our research, and we found no official figure for how long a search takes.

Which websites do people use to find a rental home?

These are the sites we could read, named factually and in no order:

• Pararius lists rental apartments across the Netherlands, with pages for Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and other cities (Pararius).
• Kamernet lists rooms, studios, apartments and furnished apartments. It says landlords can advertise for free, and that a premium upgrade lets you respond to listings. It does not show the price of that upgrade on the page we read (Kamernet, read 7 Oct 2026).
• Funda is a Dutch property platform. Its site asked for a human check when we tried to read it, so we do not describe its terms.

Many agencies also list homes directly. Check each site’s terms yourself, because we could not read all of them. Never pay a fee or deposit before you have seen the home and read a written contract.

What rules protect me as a tenant?

The government’s tenants’ plan sets out the rules that matter during a search (read 7 Oct 2026):

• The agent’s fee. If the landlord uses a rental agency, the landlord pays it, and the agency may not charge you as well. If you hire your own intermediary, you pay that person.
• The deposit. At most two months’ basic rent, returned within 14 days or 30 days if costs are deducted.
• Selection. Landlords must state in writing how they select their tenants, and give information on it in the advertisement. An unsuccessful applicant must receive a written explanation of the rejection.
• The contract. A tenancy agreement dated 1 July 2023 or later must be in writing.

Our guide to renting in the Netherlands covers the rent classes, the 2026 limits and the Rent Tribunal, so we do not repeat them here.

What does a landlord expect in your rental file?

We found no official list of documents. The rule we could source is that the landlord’s selection criteria are written and visible, so read them in the advertisement and ask for them if they are missing. Prepare the papers a landlord can reasonably check: a valid passport or ID card, your employment contract or a letter from your employer, and proof of income. These are our suggestion, not a legal list. If a landlord asks for more, ask why.

Your tenancy agreement also matters beyond the home. You need proof of address to register with the municipality. Rotterdam accepts a rental contract, a tenancy agreement signed by the landlord or a landlord’s declaration (Rotterdam International Center). The government’s page adds that if you have no fixed address you may register your postal address (SDG portal). Read how registration and the BSN work before you sign.

What does a home-finding service do, step by step?

Agencies describe different scopes, so ask for yours in writing. Published scopes include these steps:

1. A brief. Your budget, areas, move-in date and household.
2. A search and a shortlist. The agent looks across sites and its own network.
3. Viewings. Housing & Relocation Rotterdam lists up to five accompanied viewings in its home-search fee.
4. Contract review. The same list names contract review and inspections.
5. Set-up. Utility set-up help is on that list. Xpats-Service lists utility registration, a bank account and BSN registration in its packages (Xpats-Service).

The fees are one month’s rent with a minimum of EUR 1,000 to EUR 1,495 at the two agencies that publish them, or a package from EUR 2,950, all excluding 21% VAT. Our guide to what a relocation agency costs in the Netherlands sets them side by side.

What changes if you move with children or arrive before you have a home?

If you move with children, the home and the school come as a pair, because the school decides which areas you can live in. Housing & Relocation Rotterdam sells a school search that includes a consultation, a tailored list of schools, up to three organised visits and help with the application, at EUR 700 excluding VAT, and a one-hour information call at EUR 210. The Xpats-Service family package lists school or kindergarten enrolment and a childcare service (Xpats-Service; Housing & Relocation Rotterdam, read 7 Oct 2026).

If you land before you have a signed lease, you need somewhere to stay. Several agencies in our directory list temporary housing among their services, so ask about it as a separate line with its own price and its own dates. Remember that the five-day registration deadline starts on arrival. Rotterdam accepts a written statement from a hotel manager as proof of address, dated within three months. Other municipalities have their own rules, so ask yours before you rely on a hotel.

When is an agency worth it?

An agency can be worth the fee in these cases:

• You arrive with a deadline, for example a start date at work, and cannot attend viewings yourself.
• You move with a family and need school search and contract review in one place.
• Your employer pays, or contributes.
• You have searched for several weeks and keep losing out.

It is probably not worth it if you have months to search, live nearby and can attend viewings. An agency cannot create homes. It can save time, and it cannot promise a result. Read how to choose a relocation agency in the Netherlands before you pay, and use the Netherlands hub to find agencies in your city. If you want one to search for you, get matched.

What we could not source

We found no official list of documents a landlord may ask for, and no official figure for how long a search takes in Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam or Eindhoven. Pararius and the other large sites block automated reading, so we describe only what we could read, and we have not checked what each site charges tenants. We did not find an official source on scam listings, so we give general advice only.