Can you buy a house in the Netherlands without a BSN or permanent residency?

Dutch law does not ask about your nationality or residence status

Owning a home in the Netherlands is not restricted to Dutch nationals or to permanent residents. Ownership passes through a deed of transfer (leveringsakte) executed by a civil-law notary and registered in the public registers of the Kadaster, and the rules that govern that act are about identity, not immigration. Article 39(1) of the Notaries Act (Wet op het notarisambt) requires that the persons appearing before a notary be known to them, and that the notary establish the identity of anyone appearing for the first time from a document listed in the Identification Act, recording its type and number in the deed. The professional guidance of the notaries organisation (KNB) adds that this must be an original document and not a copy, and is explicit that the Act does not oblige you to demonstrate a nationality or a particular residence status.

Sellers are equally unrestricted. Answering parliamentary questions in October 2025 about the rising share of homes bought by internationals, the Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning wrote that in the Netherlands everyone is free to sell their home to whoever they want, regardless of where the buyer comes from. For scale: the estate agents association NVM recorded internationals as 1.6 percent of purchases in the first quarter of 2025, up from 0.8 percent in the same quarter of 2020.

Almost every barrier a foreign buyer runs into is commercial rather than legal. Lenders, banks and insurers set their own acceptance rules, and those rules do turn on residence permits, contracts and a BSN. Keep the two apart when someone tells you that you cannot buy.

The BSN is not an ownership requirement, but you will need one

A BSN (burgerservicenummer) is your personal number for dealings with Dutch government bodies, and you get one by being registered in the Personal Records Database (Basisregistratie Personen, or BRP). How you register depends on how long you are staying. If you are coming to live in the Netherlands for longer than four months, you must register as a resident (ingezetene) at the municipality where you live, within five days of arrival. Registration is free.

If you are staying less than four months, or living abroad entirely, you can still be registered in the BRP as a non-resident (niet-ingezetene) through the RNI, the register of non-residents. You need only a valid identity document, and a BSN is issued on registration. There are 19 municipalities with an RNI desk, but the access rules narrowed this year: since January 2026, people without a European passport can register at only two of them, Breda and Venlo. Plan for that if you are arriving on a non-EU passport and need a number quickly.

Nothing in the transfer of ownership itself hangs on the number. What hangs on it is everything around the purchase: Dutch payroll, a bank account, your income tax return, and therefore the mortgage interest deduction. That is why mortgage advisers treat the BSN as step one even though the notary could, in principle, live without it.

What the notary needs versus what a lender needs

The notary has a short list and the lender has a long one, and confusing the two is the most common reason expat buyers think they are disqualified. The notary establishes identity, checks the background of buyer and seller, the home and the mortgage situation, receives the purchase money through the client account (derdengeldenrekening) and registers the deed. A lender is deciding whether to carry twenty or thirty years of credit risk on you, so it asks about permits, contracts, income and where you will live.

One rule sits on both sides of that table. If you buy a home you will live in yourself for the longer term, transfer tax (overdrachtsbelasting) is 2 percent in 2026, or nothing at all under the one-time starter exemption if you are 18 or over but under 35 and the home is worth no more than 555,000 euro. If it will not be your main home, the 2026 rate is 8 percent, down from 10.4 percent in 2025. You sign a written declaration (verklaring overdrachtsbelasting laag tarief) that the notary must already hold before the transfer, or that is written into the deed itself.

EU and non-EU buyers face different permit questions, not different property rights

Nationality changes what you must prove to a lender, not whether you may own. Citizens of an EU or EEA country or Switzerland need no residence permit at all to live in the Netherlands: the IND treats a valid national passport or ID card as proof of lawful residence. Everyone else needs a residence permit for stays longer than 90 days, and the type of permit is what lenders look at.

The clearest published standard is the 2026 conditions of the national mortgage guarantee (Nationale Hypotheek Garantie, or NHG). To lend with NHG, the lender must see one of the following from your documents: nationality of an EU member state, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein; a Dutch residence permit for an indefinite period; an EU residence permit for long-term residents; a document showing permanent residence as a Union citizen; or a Dutch residence permit for a purpose of stay that is not temporary under article 3.5 of the Aliens Decree (Vreemdelingenbesluit).

A temporary-purpose permit is not an outright bar. Where two people apply together and one of them holds only a fixed-term permit with a temporary purpose, NHG still allows the loan, but the income of that applicant cannot be counted towards the assessable income. Lenders who work outside NHG set their own policies, which vary: some accept temporary permits with a larger deposit, some do not lend at all to applicants who neither live nor work in the Netherlands. A mortgage adviser can tell you which lenders currently accept your specific permit.

The 30 percent ruling does not increase what you can borrow

The expat scheme is a tax-free reimbursement of costs, not extra salary, so it does not lift your borrowing capacity. Dutch lending rules work from durable income (bestendige inkomsten), and the NHG conditions for 2026 state plainly that travel allowances, pension compensation and other expense reimbursements do not count towards it. The 30 percent ruling is legally a reimbursement of extraterritorial costs, which is why what a lender assesses is the gross salary in your contract and employer statement, not the higher amount that lands in your account.

The current figures matter for a second reason: the scheme is temporary and shrinking. The tax-free allowance stays at a maximum of 30 percent for 2025 and 2026 and drops to a maximum of 27 percent from 2027. A decision (beschikking) runs for at most five years. In 2026 the ruling may be applied to salary up to 262,000 euro (the WNT norm), so the tax-free allowance is at most 78,600 euro, and from 2026 that cap applies to everyone with the ruling. You qualify on the expertise test with a taxable annual salary above 48,013 euro, or above 36,497 euro if you are under 30 with a Dutch academic master degree or a recognised equivalent.

The practical consequence is a net-income cliff at the end of the five years, in the middle of a mortgage that runs far longer. Lenders are not obliged to model that, and NHG does not require it, but it is exactly the kind of thing to put in front of a mortgage adviser before you commit to a monthly payment that only works on post-ruling take-home pay.

A temporary contract narrows your options rather than closing them

You can borrow on a fixed-term contract in the Netherlands, and what changes is which document proves your income. Under the NHG 2026 conditions a lender may use an employer statement (werkgeversverklaring) for a permanent contract, for a fixed-term contract accompanied by a statement of intent, and for a fixed-term contract without one. The employer statement must follow the NHG model, and both it and your payslip may be no more than three months old at the date of the binding offer.

The statement of intent (intentieverklaring) is the pivot. It is a declaration from your employer, in fixed wording, that if your performance stays the same and business circumstances are unchanged, your fixed-term contract will be followed by a continued or renewed permanent contract, and it may not be made conditional on anything else. With one, your fixed-term contract is assessed on essentially the same footing as a permanent one, so your current salary can be used in full. Without one, the contract alone is not treated as durable income, and the lender falls back on the flexible-income calculation described below rather than on what you earn today.

That is when lenders fall back on your history instead of your contract. NHG allows annual statements (jaaropgaven) from the past three calendar years to be used where there is a fixed-term contract without a statement of intent, where you are still in a probation period, where the contract is about to end, or where you do flexible work such as seasonal, agency or on-call work. Newly arrived buyers with no Dutch income history are the group this hits hardest.

A Dutch bank account is a practical need, not a legal one

No Dutch law makes a Dutch bank account a condition of buying property. The purchase money moves into the client account of the notary before the deed is executed, and a euro transfer from an account elsewhere in the SEPA area is a normal transfer. EU rules on IBAN discrimination back that up: if a counterpart accepts euro credit transfers or direct debits from domestic accounts, it may not refuse your account because it sits in a different EU country.

In practice you will still open one, and the sensible moment is early rather than at the deed. A Dutch salary is paid into it, the mortgage instalment is normally collected from it, and municipal charges, the water board levy and utilities all expect a routine local direct debit. Banks also record your BSN, which is a second reason the number tends to come first in the sequence. Expect identity checks and a recent proof of address.

Tell the notary early where the money is coming from if any of it comes from abroad or from another person. Notaries have to check the source of funds under anti-money-laundering law, and foreign transfers take manual verification, so a payment that arrives late or from an unexpected account can hold up the transfer date.

Some municipalities restrict letting the home out, not living in it

Municipal buy-up protection (opkoopbescherming) limits renting a newly bought home out, and never limits moving into it yourself. It has been available to municipalities since 1 January 2022, it applies only in areas a municipality has designated and only to homes in the cheap and mid-priced categories it has defined, and it is enforced through a rental permit (verhuurvergunning) with a short list of exceptions such as letting to close family or a temporary let after you have lived there yourself. In Utrecht, for example, a home bought after 17 March 2022 may not be given in use to others within four years of purchase. The value ceiling is set locally and moves each year: The Hague applies buy-up protection in 2026 to homes with a WOZ value up to 470,000 euro.

The same owner-occupation question runs through the tax rules. A home only counts as an eigen woning in box 1, with mortgage interest deductible, if you own it and it is your main residence; a home that is not your main residence sits in box 3 as an asset. With the 8 percent transfer tax on a home you will not live in, and the NHG requirement to occupy the home as your main residence, the system consistently prices buying to let higher. If you are buying with a letting plan in mind, check that municipality housing ordinance and ask a tax adviser how the property will be taxed.

Common questions

Can I buy a Dutch house if I live abroad and have no BSN?

Yes. Dutch law places no nationality or residency condition on owning property in the Netherlands, and a notary identifies you from an original identity document rather than a permit. You can obtain a BSN as a non-resident through the RNI, and since January 2026 holders of non-European passports can do that at the Breda and Venlo desks. Financing is the real constraint: lender acceptance policies vary, and some Dutch lenders do not lend at all to applicants who neither live nor work in the Netherlands.

Do I need permanent residency to get a Dutch mortgage?

No. For a mortgage with NHG in 2026 it is enough to show EU, EEA or Swiss nationality, a Dutch permit for an indefinite period, an EU long-term residents permit, permanent residence as a Union citizen, or a Dutch permit for a purpose of stay that is not temporary. If you hold a fixed-term permit with a temporary purpose and apply jointly with someone who qualifies, the loan is still possible but your income cannot be counted.

Does the 30 percent ruling let me borrow more?

No. Dutch lenders assess durable income, and the NHG 2026 conditions exclude expense reimbursements from it. The ruling is a tax-free reimbursement of extraterritorial costs, so lenders work from the gross salary in your contract. It is also finite: 30 percent maximum in 2025 and 2026, 27 percent maximum from 2027, and a decision that runs for at most five years.

Can I get a mortgage on a temporary contract?

Often, yes. If your employer signs a statement of intent (intentieverklaring) promising a permanent contract on unchanged performance and business circumstances, NHG rules let a lender count your income for the whole loan term. Without one, your income counts only until the contract ends, and lenders instead look at annual statements from the past three calendar years. A mortgage adviser can tell you which route your file fits.

Do I need a Dutch bank account before I can make an offer?

Not legally. The purchase money goes to the client account of the notary, and EU rules on IBAN discrimination mean a euro account in another EU country cannot be refused for transfers or direct debits that a domestic account could make. In practice you will want a Dutch account for salary, the mortgage direct debit and municipal charges, so open one as soon as you have a BSN.

Can I rent out the home I buy in the Netherlands?

It depends on where you buy and how you finance it. Municipalities that apply buy-up protection require a rental permit to let a newly bought home in the designated areas and value bracket, and in Utrecht that restriction runs for four years after purchase. Letting also puts the home in box 3 rather than box 1 for tax, and the 2026 transfer tax rate on a home you will not live in is 8 percent rather than 2 percent.