Magazine | Do you pay too much for your house in Amsterdam?

The question is whether some of these absurd amounts are even legal. From 2024 onwards, with the introduction of the Affordable Rent Act, landlords are no longer allowed to charge endlessly high rents. You can calculate exactly what yourmaximum base rent should be through the Rent Check on the website of the Rent Commission. To do this, you do need to measure your entire home. Not only the size of your property matters, but also its location, the value of the house, whether rooms are heated or not, and whether the building is a listed monument. Having a kitchen in your room also allows the landlord to charge significantly more rent.
 
Additionally, landlords are legally required to include the rent calculation with the rental contract from 1 January 2025 onwards. It is also no longer allowed to charge a “flat rate”. Service costs and base rent must be specified separately in the contract. The service costs must also be settled annually.
 
You don’t necessarily have to assume your landlord is trying to rip you off, state Quirine Renleo and Joop Zweistra from the Rent Commission. “Not all landlords are bad,” says Renleo. “Most landlords we encounter have good intentions; they are just poorly informed about the rules.”
 
Many students are still reluctant to take action. “If you start a procedure, your landlord is always informed. In an overheated housing market, as a student, you think twice before doing that,” says Zweistra. He advises students who are unsure about taking action to request non-binding information from the Rent Commission.

“It’s a bit dead in Amstelveen”

Christos (21) studies Psychology and lives with a fellow Greek roommate and his cat Zoë in an apartment in Amstelveen. From their seventh-floor balcony, they look out over a landscape of trees and apartment complexes.

Christos pays €950 including gas, water, electricity, heating, internet, and furniture rental. His tenancy agreement states a single total price with no breakdown of service costs. The exact base rent is therefore unclear. He moved in here in August 2024 and has never received a service cost settlement. However, the rent did increase when gas prices rose sharply during the COVID period.
 
The communal areas together measure 50 m², and Christos’s room is 13 m². There is also a balcony and a small storage room. The calculation resulted in a maximum base rent of €669.35. Because the exact base rent of Christos is unknown, it is difficult to compare. This lack of clarity raises questions.
 
What do you think of the apartment?
“I do miss young people in this area; it feels a bit dead here. But I couldn’t find anything in Amsterdam. It was this or Monnickendam. It’s a 40-minute bike ride to campus, but it also gives me a nice break from university. I really like the space; I can invite many friends. My room isn’t very spacious, and there is a large bed in it, which is very impractical. We rent the apartment furnished, which means you can’t do much with the space.”
 
After doing the rent price check, do you think you’re paying too much?
“My wallet does hurt a bit. I don’t know if I expected such a big difference. But we shouldn’t forget that gas, electricity, and furniture are included. I don’t think it’s worth taking action right now.”

“I’m not allowed to cook in my kitchen”

Vici (24) studies Psychology and lives with five other women in a terraced house on the border between Diemen and the Bijlmer. In her newly renovated, spacious attic room, there is now also a small kitchen unit, but she is not allowed to cook in it.

Last year, kitchen units and microwaves were installed in the bedrooms of all six girls so they could be classified as “bedrooms with kitchen”, allowing higher rent to be charged. However, cooking is not allowed, as it would trigger the smoke alarm. The landlady did the rent price check and included it in the rental contract. When the extra kitchen is included, the base rent roughly matches our calculation. Vici pays €681.36 in base rent; our calculation comes out slightly higher at €690.38. Without the kitchen, it would be €616.58.
 
It can be questioned whether the service costs Vici pays are fair. Before the renovation, the girls paid a total of €310 in service costs; now it is €243.64 per person. Vici and her housemates once asked for the service cost breakdown, but the landlady said she didn’t have it. They let it go.
 
What do you think of your room?
“I really love my room; a lot of people can stay over, which I like a lot. The area sometimes feels a bit sketchy. I didn’t actually want the kitchen in my room. It’s very impractical and I don’t really need the extra cupboard space.”
 
Now that you’ve done the calculation, would you take action?
“I expected a bigger difference. I do think the service costs are too high, but I’m afraid to take action. She can’t evict me, but she can make living here difficult. She is one of the better landladies in Amsterdam, but she can be quite controlling. If something needs fixing, she is very helpful, but she also checks whether we keep the house clean enough. And when we complain, she can react quite emotionally.”

“It’s an insane amount”

Alexia (20) studies Business Economics and lives with her fellow Romanian friend in an old building right in the heart of De Pijp. To get there, you have to brave the steep, narrow stairs, but once inside you find yourself in a spacious, modern flat where everything feels brand new: that’s also what you pay for.

The landlord’s points calculation comes out at 105 points per tenant; ours at 87. According to the landlord, the building is also a protected cityscape, allowing higher rent. However, he does not specify which rent corresponds to the points. Our calculation results in a base rent of €791.35 per person.

 
In the rental contract, a base rent of €2,719.58 is charged for two people and €1 in service costs. We both wonder what that single euro is spent on. On average, Alexia also pays an additional €100 per month for gas, water, electricity, and heating.
 
What do you think of the house?
“The rooms aren’t very big, but the apartment itself is quite spacious. Everyone who visits is surprised by the place. We always wanted to invite people over but never had the space. Now we often have parties here.”
 
Do you expect that you’re paying too much for the apartment?
“It’s subjective, because of course it’s an insane amount. In Romania, you’d never pay this. But we have friends who live further out in Amsterdam and pay the same. I think we’ve been very lucky to get this place. We’d been looking for four months through an estate agent. We viewed two other places in this area, but they were more expensive and smaller.”
 
So, are you paying too much?
“I’m actually a bit frustrated, because I’m paying almost double what I should be paying. I don’t really know how Dutch law works or what the rules are. Our landlord is a lawyer, so I don’t know if I’m going to do anything about it. It’s unfair, but I don’t want to risk him getting angry.”