Letting to expats

Free sector rental properties are often rented to expats. What is the reason for this? Why does an owner not choose a Dutch tenant but an expat is preferred? These are questions that we regularly receive from Dutch tenants.

For many landlords it is attractive to rent to a candidate who comes from abroad to work and live in the Netherlands. This has a number of reasons. An employer (mostly multinationals) makes it attractive for a foreign employee to come to the Netherlands. A high salary, an allowance for housing, favorable fringe benefits and an attractive tax scheme are mainly reasons to come to the Netherlands.

30% ruling
Expats do not pay income tax on 30% of the salary. This tax ruling only applies if the expat brings a certain expertise with him. As of January 2019, the duration of this arrangement is 5 years.

Most expats live and work in Amsterdam. The majority of these come from America, England and Germany. Amstelveen is popular among Indians working in the IT sector.

Temporary rental
Another reason to rent to expats is that they are often in the Netherlands on a temporary basis. Our experience is that a foreign tenant stays in the Netherlands for 2 to 5 years. They then leave for another destination, return to their country of origin or continue their stay in a owner-occupied house. In this way you can still offer a rental agreement of at least 12 months with a high probability that the tenant will leave again after a number of years, barring exceptions.

Multinationals share housing costs
Until a few years ago, the employer was usually the tenant on the lease and the occupant was then the company's employee. For a landlord a safe feeling if for example Nike, Unilever, Tesla, Aegon, ABN AMRO or ING is the tenant.

In recent years, we see that the expat gets an allowance from the employer to (partially) cover the rental costs. This may be a one-time fee (start-up costs) or a monthly allowance incorporated into the salary.