Dutch Transfer Tax 2026: Second Homes Drop from 10.4% to 8%
From 1 January 2026 the Dutch overdrachtsbelasting on a home you will not live in is 8%, down from 10.4%. The starter exemption still stops at 555,000 euro.
A Dutch second home carried 10.4% in transfer tax last year. From 1 January 2026 it carries 8%.
The overdrachtsbelasting, the Dutch tax on acquiring property, fell from 10.4% to 8% on a home the buyer will not live in. The Belastingdienst, the Dutch tax administration, keeps 2% for a home you occupy yourself, a full exemption for qualifying buyers under 35, and 10.4% for property that is not a dwelling.
| Buyer situation | Rate (%) | |
|---|---|---|
| Starter under 35 | 0.0% | |
| Own home | 2.0% | |
| Second home or let | 8.0% | |
| Not a dwelling | 10.4% |
What exactly dropped, and what did not?
Only homes the buyer will not occupy. The Belastingdienst rate table sets the 2025 and 2026 figures side by side. A home you do not use as your main residence, which it lists as a second home, a holiday home, or a home for letting or investment, moves from 10.4% to 8%. Everything else is unchanged: 2% where you live in the home yourself, 0% for qualifying starters under 35, and 10.4% for property that is not a dwelling, which the tax administration illustrates with business premises, offices, garages and shops.
The saving is straightforward arithmetic on those two published rates. On a 400,000 euro purchase, 10.4% is 41,600 euro and 8% is 32,000 euro, a difference of 9,600 euro on the same property.
There is a trap in the definition rather than the rate. The Belastingdienst states that where a home is bought and then demolished, the 2% rate or the starter exemption may not apply and the 8% rate applies instead.
What is the startersvrijstelling worth in 2026?
The whole transfer tax, up to a hard ceiling of 555,000 euro. The Belastingdienst sets out four conditions for the starter exemption: you acquire a home you will live in yourself for a longer period, you are an adult and under 35 at the moment of acquisition, you have not used the exemption before, and the value of the home at that moment is not above 555,000 euro.
Three details in that page decide real cases. The ceiling runs on the value in economic traffic, meaning open market value including appurtenances such as a garden, shed or garage, and the tax administration gives 560,000 euro as an example that fails. Where the home stands on erfpacht, the Dutch long lease of land, the capitalised ground rent is added to the value. And the ceiling is tested against the whole home, not the share acquired: the Belastingdienst works through two buyers under 35 taking 50% each of a 600,000 euro home and concludes the exemption does not apply, even though each pays 300,000 euro.
The exemption is also optional. The tax administration notes a buyer may take the 2% rate instead and keep the exemption for a later home, provided that at that later acquisition they are still under 35 and meet the conditions then in force.
Which date sets the rate?
The notarial one. The Belastingdienst defines the moment of acquisition as the moment the notarial deed of delivery is signed at the notary, which is what fixes both the starter exemption test and, in the tax administration's rate table, the year whose rate applies. A purchase agreed in 2025 and completed in 2026 is therefore tested against the 2026 position.
What this changes for a buyer
The rate now depends on a declaration about how the buyer will use the home, made at the notary, rather than on the property itself. For a buyer weighing a second home elsewhere in Europe, we have looked at the equivalent question in Sweden in second home costs and yield for Dutch buyers.
We do not give buying or selling advice, and nothing here says whether a Dutch second home is worth buying. What the Belastingdienst pages do support is checkable: 8% instead of 10.4% on a home you will not live in, 555,000 euro as the starter ceiling measured on the whole home, erfpacht adding to that value, and the notarial deed as the moment that decides. AiMYNDi reads the listing, the financials and the legal paperwork for a specific property so the erfpacht clause and the value question surface before the notary appointment. You can see an example of what a report looks like first.