The Affordable Rent Act (Wet betaalbare huur)

Since 1 July 2024 the Netherlands has regulated far more of its rental market than it used to. The Affordable Rent Act — the Wet betaalbare huur — extended rent control from social housing into the mid-market segment, made the points system binding rather than a yardstick, and handed enforcement to municipalities. If you rent in Amsterdam or Eindhoven, or you let property there, the rules below decide what your rent may lawfully be.

What the Affordable Rent Act does

The Act is not a stand-alone code but an amending statute, rewriting parts of Book 7 of the Dutch Civil Code, the Uitvoeringswet huurprijzen woonruimte, the Besluit huurprijzen woonruimte and the Wet goed verhuurderschap. It entered into force on 1 July 2024. Three changes matter most.

• Regulation was extended into the middenhuur. Before July 2024 only homes scoring up to 143 points were rent-controlled; everything above that was “liberalised” and could be let at whatever the market would bear. The Act created a regulated mid-market band from 144 to 186 points.
• The points system became binding. Previously a landlord could ask more than the points maximum and the rent stood unless the tenant challenged it in time. Now the maximum is mandatory law: charging more is unlawful in itself, whether or not the tenant complains.
• The points system was modernised. The WOZ component was capped, energy labels were given far more weight, outdoor space was better rewarded, and surcharges were introduced for new-build and listed buildings.

The government estimated at the time that around 300,000 homes would eventually see rents fall by an average of about €190 a month, of which some 157,000 mid-market homes by an average of about €240. These were projections made in advance, not measured outcomes.

The housing valuation system (woningwaarderingsstelsel)

The woningwaarderingsstelsel, or WWS, scores a dwelling on measurable features and converts the total into a maximum monthly basic rent (the kale huur, excluding service charges). It sits in article 5 of the Besluit huurprijzen woonruimte, with the scoring tables in its annexes.

Self-contained homes

For an independent dwelling — one with its own front door, kitchen and bathroom — points are awarded for:

• the surface area of each room and of any storage space;
• kitchen and sanitary fittings, including worktop length and a second toilet or a bath;
• the energy label, which since the modernisation carries far more weight — a good label adds many points, while labels E, F and G attract a deduction;
• outdoor space such as a garden, balcony or roof terrace, with a deduction where there is none;
• the WOZ value (the municipal property valuation), subject to a cap so that location cannot dominate the score in high-value areas;
• listed-building status, care facilities and smaller items.

Each point corresponds to an amount in a published table, so 143 and 186 points each translate into a precise euro figure. Those figures are indexed on 1 January every year under article 12 of the Besluit huurprijzen woonruimte, following the method in article 27 of the Wet op de huurtoeslag. Any figure you read is therefore valid only for the year stated.

Rooms and other non-self-contained accommodation

Rooms, and other accommodation where you share a kitchen or bathroom, are valued under a separate system — the WWSO — also modernised and made binding on 1 July 2024. The practical point for students and young professionals is that there is no free sector for rooms: however high the score, a room has a maximum rent.

Surcharges: new-build, monuments and energy

Article 8a of the Besluit huurprijzen woonruimte allows several uplifts on the maximum rent:

• New-build surcharge of 10% for mid-market dwellings where construction began before 1 January 2028, applying for twenty years from first occupation, to keep mid-market development viable.
• National monument (rijksmonument): a surcharge of 35%.
• Provincial or municipal monument: a surcharge of 15%.
• Protected townscape: a surcharge of 5% for dwellings built before 1965 in a protected townscape that are not themselves listed.

Listed buildings are also protected against the energy-label deduction: rather than losing points for a poor label, a monument scores zero for that item. There is no separate renovation exemption; renovation feeds through the ordinary route, so a landlord who genuinely upgrades a property — particularly its energy label — raises the lawful maximum rent.

The three segments

The table sets out the position for 2026. The amounts are the maximum starting rent at the commencement of a new tenancy, exclusive of service charges, and are indexed each 1 January.

The same boundaries stood at €900.07 and €1,184.82 in 2025, and at €879.58 and €1,157.95 when the Act came into force on 1 July 2024. The points score governs, not the rent asked: a home scoring 160 points is a mid-market home even if advertised at €1,600, and the excess is unlawful.

Existing contracts: the transitional regime

The Act applies in full to every tenancy concluded on or after 1 July 2024. For contracts signed before that date, the transitional rules differ by points score:

• Up to 143 points, let below the liberalisation threshold at commencement. Already regulated; the modernised WWS and the new maximum applied from 1 July 2024.
• Up to 143 points, but let above the liberalisation threshold at commencement — a “liberalised” contract on a home that in fact scores low. The Act caught these from 1 July 2025, after a one-year transitional period allowing landlords to adjust voluntarily. Since that date the sitting tenant can require the rent to be brought down to the points maximum.
• 144 to 186 points. Existing contracts are not affected. The mid-market maximum bites only on a change of tenant, when the home is next let.
• 187 points and above. Outside the regime; no maximum starting rent.

This is the most misunderstood part of the Act. Many tenants assume mid-market regulation applies to them at once; for most sitting mid-market tenants it does not. It is still worth having the points counted: a flat that looks mid-market can score below 143 once a poor energy label and a capped WOZ value are taken into account — and that flat is covered.

The points statement the landlord must give you

A landlord letting a regulated or mid-market home must give the tenant a points count under the WWS or WWSO, with the corresponding maximum rent, at the start of the tenancy. The duty has applied to new tenancy agreements since 1 July 2024, when the Affordable Rent Act came into force; the Huurcommissie’s enforcement powers and instruments were fully operational from 1 January 2025. It sits among the general rules of good landlordship in article 2 of the Wet goed verhuurderschap, so the municipality can enforce it. It is the tenant’s best starting point: ask for one in writing, and if none comes that is itself a reportable breach.

Enforcement: from the tenant’s initiative to the municipality’s

Before the Act, an excessive rent was the tenant’s problem: the tenant had to apply to the Huurcommissie within six months of the start of the tenancy, and a tenant on a temporary contract who feared non-renewal often did nothing. The Act wrote the maximum rent into the general rules of good landlordship, and since 1 January 2025 municipalities can enforce those rules of their own motion, using the escalation ladder of the Wet goed verhuurderschap:

• a warning;
• an order under administrative coercion (last onder bestuursdwang) or a penalty order (last onder dwangsom);
• an administrative fine (bestuurlijke boete), which increases on repetition;
• in the most serious cases of repeated breach, management takeover (beheerovername), placing the property under third-party management.

The administrative fine has a basic maximum set at a fine of the fourth category, €22,500, rising to €25,750 and, for legal persons that reoffend, to €103,000 (article 19 of the Wet goed verhuurderschap). Every municipality must also operate a reporting point (meldpunt) where tenants can report bad letting practice, anonymously if they wish.

Municipal enforcement does not replace the tenant’s own remedies; it runs alongside them.

• Within six months of the start of the tenancy, the tenant can ask the Huurcommissie to test the starting rent under article 7:249 of the Dutch Civil Code. Too high a rent is then reduced with retrospective effect to the commencement date.
• After that window, a tenant of a regulated or mid-market home can propose a reduction to the landlord and, if refused, take the point to the Huurcommissie under article 7:254 of the Dutch Civil Code. Such a reduction generally takes effect for the future only.
• Huurcommissie decisions bind the parties, subject to referral of the dispute to the subdistrict court within the statutory period.

How much may the rent go up each year?

Rent increases are capped separately from the starting rent, and the caps are reset annually.

• Regulated homes (up to 143 points), from 1 July 2026: a maximum of 4.1%, or a maximum of €25 where the basic rent is below €350 per month. The same 4.1% ceiling applies to rooms, caravans and pitches.
• Mid-market homes (144–186 points), 2026: a maximum of 6.1%. Where the contract itself specifies a lower percentage, the contractual figure prevails; where it specifies a higher one, the landlord may not apply it.

Both caps follow the same statutory formula: the lower of inflation and collectively agreed wage development, plus one percentage point. They are announced annually and the maximum mid-market increase runs from 1 July each year, so both figures will change for 2027. A tenant who considers an increase excessive can put the proposal to the Huurcommissie; for an increase taking effect on 1 July 2026 the published deadline is 1 November 2026.

How the Act fits with the rest of Dutch rental law

The Good Landlordship Act (Wet goed verhuurderschap)

In force since 1 July 2023, the Wet goed verhuurderschap sets national rules of conduct for landlords and letting agents: no discrimination in selection, no intimidation, a deposit of no more than twice the basic rent, a written tenancy agreement, written information to the tenant, no double agency fees, and only permitted service charges. The Affordable Rent Act added the maximum rent and the maximum increase to that list, so a rent dispute is now both a civil and a regulatory matter.

Temporary contracts after the Wet vaste huurcontracten

The Fixed Tenancy Contracts Act took effect on 1 July 2024, the same day as the Affordable Rent Act, and the two are best read together. Under article 7:271 of the Dutch Civil Code a new tenant of a self-contained home now receives an open-ended contract as a rule. Temporary contracts remain possible only for defined categories set out in delegated legislation — among them certain students, people letting their own home while working abroad temporarily, interim letting while a tenant is temporarily replaced, and people in urgent housing need such as status holders and second-chance lettings — and for non-self-contained accommodation. Those categories are set out in the Besluit betaalbare huur (Stb. 2024, 180), which came into force on 1 July 2024. For internationals this matters: the old two-year contract, which made challenging an excessive rent risky, is no longer the default.

Service charges

Service charges sit outside the WWS maximum and are a frequent route for recovering what the points system disallows. Only permitted items may be passed on, and the Huurcommissie can assess them. New service-charge rules follow from 1 January 2027.

What the Act means for landlords, and what has happened since

For an investor the Act changed the arithmetic in three ways. The income ceiling for a mid-market unit is now a function of measurable building characteristics rather than local demand, so a well-located but energy-poor flat can be worth markedly less as a letting. Indexation of the maximum is capped, so income growth is bounded. And the exit is attractive: selling to an owner-occupier is often worth more than continuing to let.

The widely reported consequence has been that private landlords have sold regulated and newly regulated units, that free-sector supply has tightened while asking rents in it have risen, and that some mid-market development has been deferred. The new-build surcharge in article 8a of the Besluit huurprijzen woonruimte was intended to counteract the last of these. Market monitoring by the Kadaster, CBS and the ministry bears the trend out: since the points system was made binding for the mid-market segment up to and including 186 points on 1 July 2024, the number of former rental homes sold off by private landlords has risen and the free-sector supply has contracted.

The Act remains in force as enacted, and the Besluit huurprijzen woonruimte has continued to be amended, most recently in April 2026, so the valuation rules and thresholds are a moving target. Formal monitoring reports on the Act are published annually by the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning (VRO). A separate bill, the Wet toekomstbestendige huurcommissie (parliamentary paper 36791), deals with the structure of the Huurcommissie fees, service charge disputes and throughput times. The House of Representatives adopted it on 21 April 2026; in the Senate a second committee report was issued on 14 July 2026 and the written preparation is still running.

Practical guidance

If you are a tenant who suspects the rent is too high

• Ask the landlord in writing for the points statement, saying if you were never given one.
• Do the points count yourself using the Huurcommissie’s rent price check, with your floor areas, energy label, WOZ decision and outdoor space to hand.
• Check your contract date against the transitional rules above — that determines whether you have a claim now or only on renewal.
• Diarise the six-month window from the start of the tenancy: inside it you can obtain a retrospective reduction, outside it generally only a prospective one.
• Report the matter to your municipality’s meldpunt in parallel. Enforcement costs you nothing and does not depend on your willingness to litigate.
• Do not simply stop paying part of the rent. Reduce only on the basis of an agreement or a decision.

If you are a landlord bringing a portfolio into compliance

• Score every unit under the current WWS or WWSO, per unit rather than per building, and record the calculation.
• Check whether a surcharge applies — new-build, monument or protected townscape — because these change the ceiling materially.
• Look hard at the energy label: upgrading insulation, glazing or heating is the most direct lawful route to a higher maximum rent.
• Segregate service charges and charge only permitted items, with a proper annual statement.
• Issue the points statement with every new tenancy agreement, and keep proof that you did.
• Review the rent-increase clauses in your standard contract against the annual caps; a clause allowing more is unenforceable to that extent.
• Where a unit is loss-making under the cap, take advice before restructuring. Artificial constructions — sham service charges, mislabelling a flat as rooms, a purported holiday let — are what enforcement teams look for.