Renting versus buying in the Netherlands
Overdrachtsbelasting is 2% for someone buying a home to live in, but which 2% you pay depends on who you are. A first-time buyer under 35 pays nothing up to €555,000 in 2026, which on an average €475,000 house removes the entry tax completely and takes years off the break-even. A buyer who will not live in the property pays 8% from 1 January 2026, down from 10.4%. The calculator above uses the owner-occupier rate and does not model the starter exemption, so a genuine first purchase is better than it shows.
The deposit defaults to zero because Dutch lending allows a mortgage of 100% of the home's value. That makes the Netherlands the one market here where the up-front sum is almost entirely tax and fees rather than equity, and it is why the renter's investment pot starts so small in this comparison.
Mortgage-interest relief is still material in the Netherlands and is not modelled here. Hypotheekrenteaftrek has been trimmed repeatedly but it remains a real deduction, and it makes Dutch buying meaningfully better than the figures above. This is the country in which the "what this comparison leaves out" list matters most.
Nationale Hypotheek Garantie is optional on mortgages up to €470,000 in 2026: a one-off fee of 0.4% of the loan that buys both a government guarantee and a lower interest rate. Unlike American PMI or Australian LMI it is a choice you can decline, and it is not counted above.
OZB is a municipal rate on the WOZ value, around 0.1%, and rent rises in the regulated sector are capped each year, which is why the rent-growth default sits below house-price growth.