Can You Get a Dutch Mortgage Without a Permanent Employment Contract?

Yes, you can get a Dutch mortgage without a permanent employment contract, as long as your employer is willing to confirm in writing that they intend to continue your contract. Lenders care less about the label on your contract and more about whether your income is likely to continue. For a temporary contract holder, that written confirmation is usually the deciding factor between an approval and a rejection.

What Do Lenders Actually Require Instead of a Permanent Contract?

Most Dutch lenders will accept a temporary contract if your employer provides a so called intentieverklaring, a letter of intent. This is a short statement from your employer saying they plan to extend your contract or make it permanent, assuming your performance stays the same. Without this letter, a temporary contract on its own is often not enough to secure a mortgage without a permanent employment contract from most mainstream banks.

What surprises a lot of people is that the underlying rules for temporary contract holders are the same as for anyone else with a permanent contract. You can still finance up to 100 percent of the purchase price, or up to 106 percent if part of the loan goes toward energy saving measures like insulation or a heat pump. There is no separate, worse set of loan to value limits for temporary staff. The difference lies entirely in how your income gets verified, not in what you are allowed to borrow.

In practice, this means the process takes a bit more coordination. Your advisor will usually contact your employer directly, or guide you on exactly what to ask HR for, so the letter meets the format each lender expects. A vague or informal email rarely works; lenders want specific wording confirming continuation intent.

How Does the Intentieverklaring Actually Work?

The intentieverklaring is a written statement from your employer, and its wording matters more than most applicants expect. A letter that simply says “we are happy with this employee” is not the same as one that states the employer intends to convert the contract or extend it, and lenders will reject the weaker version.

Employers are not obligated to provide one, and some are hesitant to put anything in writing about future intentions. This is where timing becomes important: raising the topic with HR early, well before you start house hunting, gives you room to negotiate the wording or find an alternative employer statement if needed.

If your employer refuses to issue an intentieverklaring at all, some lenders will still look at the total length of your employment history with that employer, or a history of previous contract renewals, as an alternative signal of income stability. This route is less standardized, so results vary noticeably between banks.

Does a Temporary Contract Reduce Your Maximum Mortgage?

A temporary contract with a valid intentieverklaring generally does not reduce your maximum mortgage compared to a permanent contract; the affordability calculation uses the same NIBUD based lending norms either way. Where things do change is in the stress testing some lenders apply if your contract end date falls close to the mortgage completion date.

The test interest rate (toetsrente) used for affordability, especially with a fixed rate period under 10 years, already builds in a safety margin for future rate increases. Some lenders layer an additional, more conservative view on top of that when your employment situation is temporary rather than permanent, particularly if the current contract expires within a year or so of the purchase.

This is exactly the kind of detail where lender choice makes a real difference. One bank might treat your file as fully equivalent to a permanent contract once the intentieverklaring is in hand, while another applies a more cautious income assessment regardless of the letter. Comparing multiple lenders rather than approaching just one is often the only way to find out which policy actually works in your favor.

Which Documents Should You Prepare?

Start gathering paperwork earlier than you think you need to, since a missing signature or an incomplete employer statement is one of the most common reasons a file gets delayed at exactly the wrong moment. For a mortgage without permanent contract status, lenders will typically ask for your employment contract itself, an employer statement, your most recent payslips, and the intentieverklaring where applicable.

If you are an expat, add your residence permit and, where relevant, your 30 percent ruling decision to that list, since these affect how your income is assessed. Salary generally needs to be paid in euros; most lenders will not work with income paid in a foreign currency, so this is worth confirming with your employer before you go further into the process.

Structural allowances on top of base salary, such as a housing or relocation allowance, can often be counted toward your qualifying income too, but only if they are documented in your contract or employer statement and treated as ongoing rather than a one time payment. This is another area where lenders differ, so matching your specific income mix to the right lender is part of getting the most out of your application.

Can Freelancers or the Self-Employed Follow a Similar Path?

If you have no employment contract at all because you work as a freelancer or run your own business, the assessment shifts entirely; lenders look at your profit over recent years rather than any letter of intent. That is a different process from the temporary contract situation described above, with its own documentation and its own income calculation rules, and it deserves its own separate explanation rather than a quick mention here.

What both situations share is this: your maximum mortgage depends heavily on which lender you approach, because income assessment policies vary significantly from one bank to another. Getting professional guidance before you start viewing properties can save you from bidding on a home you later discover you cannot actually finance.

Frequently asked questions about mortgages without a permanent contract at de Kredieter