Buying a house in Rotterdam as an expat: more choice, and the foundations to check

I am Jiri, an estate agent in Maastricht. Rotterdam is the big Dutch city where an expat buyer has the most choice: more homes for sale, more new buildings, and prices that are still below Amsterdam's and Utrecht's. The homes most people want are another matter. Those are in the pre-war neighbourhoods around the centre, and there the same rule applies as everywhere else: the best ones often change hands before they reach Funda. Here is how buying in Rotterdam works, and the one thing I would check on every older house.

What homes cost

Average sale price, Rotterdam

€414,579

2025, +2.9% on 2024

Province of Zuid-Holland

€469,137

2025

The Netherlands

€479,527

2025

Bidding above the asking price is still common in the Netherlands: in the second quarter of 2026, 71 percent of existing homes sold above it (NVM), on average 4.8 percent over (Huispedia). In the same quarter more homes came onto the market than in any quarter since the NVM began measuring in 1995, and the NVM speaks of more room to negotiate. A Dutch bank lends at most the market value that an independent valuer puts on the home; whatever you bid above that, plus the buyer's costs, comes from your savings. The buyer's costs, kosten koper, are two percent transfer tax for a home you will live in yourself (buyers under 35 buying their first home pay none below a price limit set each year), plus the notary, the valuer and your mortgage adviser.

The foundations

Most of Rotterdam is built on soft ground, and many houses from before the Second World War stand on wooden piles. As long as the groundwater covers them, those piles last; when they are exposed, they can rot, and a house that needs new foundations faces a bill that often runs to tens of thousands of euros. It is not a reason to avoid older houses. It is a reason to ask, for every house built before about 1970: has the foundation been investigated or repaired, and are there reports? If nobody knows, have a specialist look before you sign, or make the purchase subject to a foundation survey. Your valuer and the selling agent will know which streets have had problems.

The same question applies in other cities in the west of the country, Amsterdam and The Hague included. In Rotterdam you will hear it more often, so do not be surprised when your mortgage adviser asks.

Apartments and the owners' association

A large share of what is for sale in Rotterdam is apartments, from split pre-war houses to towers along the river. Each comes with an owners' association, the VvE. Ask for its minutes, its reserve fund and its maintenance plan; in a new tower, also ask what the monthly service costs include. Dutch law requires every association to save for maintenance, but how much is enough differs per building, and the minutes tell you whether anything large is coming.

Where homes change hands before Funda

The centre of Rotterdam was destroyed in the bombing of May 1940, which is why it is modern, and why the old neighbourhoods lie around it. Those are the places where people stay for decades and where a good share of the homes are sold through neighbours and agents' lists. I have written about four of them. Kralingen lies along the lake and the woods, Hillegersberg along the Bergse Plassen, Blijdorp is a planned neighbourhood from the 1930s by the zoo, and the Scheepvaartkwartier, by the river, is one of the few parts of central Rotterdam that survived 1940.

Two ways in

The first is to get onto the lists of the agents who sell in those streets. Email three to five of them: who is buying, which streets, what kind of home, your budget and your mortgage adviser's confirmation, and that you can view at short notice. Call a week later.

The second is to write to the owners yourself. Choose the streets, pick the houses that would suit you, and send each owner a short personal letter: who you are, why this house, that you will live there yourself, and that you would like to hear from them if they ever consider selling. No price, no deadline. An English letter is fine in Rotterdam; a short Dutch version on the back is noticed. Both routes are explained in how to buy an off-market house in the Netherlands, and a template is in writing to a Dutch homeowner. With DoorLetter the first letter is free, printed and delivered by PostNL, and the owner can reply anonymously with the code in the letter, also months later.

Ground lease and buy-to-let rules

In parts of Rotterdam, as in Amsterdam and The Hague, the land is leased from the city, erfpacht. Ask whether that applies and on what terms before you bid; the yearly ground rent lowers what you can borrow. Rotterdam also protects cheaper homes in some neighbourhoods against buy-to-let: for up to four years after buying, you can only rent the home out with a permit. If you buy to live in it, that changes nothing; if you may be posted abroad, check it first.

After a yes

When an owner replies and you agree on the outlines, an independent valuer values the home for your mortgage, your adviser arranges the loan, and the selling agent or a notary draws up the written purchase agreement, with the foundation survey as a condition if you need one. Once both of you have signed, there is a sale, with three days in which you may still withdraw. The transfer follows at the notary's office.