Buying a house in The Hague as an expat: how to reach a home before it is listed

I am Jiri, an estate agent in Maastricht. Of all Dutch cities, The Hague is the one where an expat buyer is least unusual: it is home to the government, the embassies and a long list of international organisations, and many of its sellers once arrived the same way you did. That helps. What does not help is that the neighbourhoods expats like best are small, and people who live there rarely leave. Here is how buying there works, and how to reach a home before it is listed.

What homes cost

Average sale price, The Hague

€465,418

2025, +4.0% on 2024

Province of Zuid-Holland

€469,137

2025

The Netherlands

€479,527

2025

The city average says little about the neighbourhoods near the centre and the sea, where a townhouse costs a multiple of it. Bidding above the asking price is still common: in the second quarter of 2026, 71 percent of existing homes in the Netherlands sold above it (NVM), at an average of 4.8 percent over (Huispedia). A Dutch bank lends at most the market value that an independent valuer puts on the home, so whatever you bid above the valuation, and the buyer's costs on top, 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.

Townhouses, split and whole

Much of what expats look for in The Hague is in neighbourhoods built between about 1870 and 1930, full of townhouses, herenhuizen. Many of them were later divided into a ground-floor flat with a garden and one or two flats above. Each part is then an apartment with its own owners' association, the VvE, often of only two or three owners. Ask for the association's minutes, its reserve fund and its maintenance plan: in a building that old, the facade and the roof are shared bills. Some of the larger houses became offices or embassies; a firm's name or a flag by the door tells you not to bother writing there.

An undivided townhouse with a garden is what most people hope for and what comes up least. A good upper flat with high ceilings comes up more often, and is sometimes the step that gets you into the street.

Ground lease

In parts of The Hague, as in Amsterdam, the land under a house belongs to the city and is leased to the owner, erfpacht. Ask the selling agent whether that applies and on what terms before you make an offer; the yearly ground rent counts as a monthly cost when your lender works out what you can borrow.

Where homes change hands before Funda

In the neighbourhoods closest to the centre and the dunes, many homes are sold within the street or through an agent's list before any photograph is taken. I have written about five of them. The Statenkwartier and Benoordenhout are where many international families look first. The Archipelbuurt is small and quiet, with townhouses near the centre. The Zeeheldenkwartier is older, smaller in scale and livelier, and Bezuidenhout lies between the station and the woods.

Two ways in

The first is the agents' lists. Email three to five agents whose boards you see in your streets: who you are, where you want to live, what kind of home, your budget and your adviser's confirmation, and that you can view at short notice. Call a week later. In The Hague agents are used to buyers who are posted here for a fixed term and need to move quickly, so say when you can move and what your contract looks like.

The second is to write to the owners yourself. Choose the streets, pick the houses that would suit you, and send each owner a personal letter: who you are, why this house, that you want to live there yourself, and that you would like to hear from them if they ever think about selling. No price and no deadline. In The Hague an English letter is entirely normal; a short Dutch version on the back is a courtesy older owners notice. Both routes are explained in how to buy an off-market house in the Netherlands, and a template in English and Dutch 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.

If you may be posted elsewhere

Many expats in The Hague know their next move before they buy. Two things are worth checking early. Several Dutch cities protect cheaper homes against buy-to-let, which means that for up to four years after buying you can only rent the home out with a permit; ask whether that applies to the home you want. And ask your mortgage adviser what happens to your mortgage if you rent the home out later, because most Dutch mortgages are for homes the owner lives in.

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. Once both of you have signed it there is a sale, with three days in which you may still withdraw. A few weeks or months later you sign the transfer at the notary's office and get the keys.