Yes, you can qualify for a self-employed expat mortgage in the Netherlands, even without Dutch citizenship or a permanent residence permit. Lenders will look closely at both your business income and your residency situation, but with the right paperwork in place, plenty of banks are willing to work with you.
As with any expat mortgage, individual lenders set their own minimum residence period in the Netherlands, ranging from as little as one month to six months or longer. Your partner needs to be living in the Netherlands too if you are applying together. None of this depends on holding Dutch nationality or a permanent residence permit.
What changes when you are self-employed is the layer of scrutiny on top of that residency check. A bank does not just want to know how long you have lived here, it wants to see that your business generates stable, sufficient profit over time. In practice, this means you are being assessed on two fronts at once: your right to reside and your ability to earn.
That double check can feel like more hoops to jump through, but it is not unusual, and it is not a reason to assume you will be turned down. Most Dutch lenders have experience with international entrepreneurs, and a well-prepared file makes the process considerably smoother.
Banks typically calculate your toetsinkomen, the income figure they use to test what you can borrow, as the average profit from your business over the last three financial years, capped at whatever your most recent year shows. In other words, the average can never be higher than your latest result, even if your best year was two years ago.
Different banks apply different formulas here, and that matters more than most applicants expect. Some use a straightforward three-year average, while others use growth-weighted calculations that can push your assessed income higher if your most recent year was strong. For the same set of figures, this can lead to noticeably different maximum mortgage amounts depending on which lender you approach.
If you have not yet built up three years of Dutch trading history, that does not automatically rule you out. Some banks accept applications from self-employed applicants after just one year, particularly when the mortgage stays within the limit for Nationale Hypotheek Garantie (NHG), a government-backed guarantee explained further below. Lenders known to accept this shorter track record include Rabobank, SNS, Florius, BLG Wonen, Aegon, RegioBank, NIBC, Triodos Bank, ABN AMRO and Lloyds Bank, though policies and conditions vary.
For a self-employed expat, this one-year route is often the most realistic path, since you may not have three full years of Dutch business income to show even if your business itself is well established elsewhere.
You will generally need three years of annual accounts, three years of income tax returns, a profit forecast for the current year, and proof of registration with the Kamer van Koophandel (the Dutch chamber of commerce). Most lenders, especially for NHG-backed mortgages, also ask for an Inkomensverklaring Ondernemer, an official entrepreneur income statement from a certified bureau. This costs roughly 250 euros for a sole trader and around 445 euros if you operate through a BV, a Dutch private limited company.
On top of the standard entrepreneur file, you will add the usual expat documents: proof of your residence permit, your employment or business history in the Netherlands, and sometimes evidence of your credit history from abroad, since Dutch lenders cannot check foreign credit registers directly.
| Document | What it shows the lender | Relevant for |
|---|---|---|
| 3 years of annual accounts | Business profit history | Self-employment |
| Inkomensverklaring Ondernemer | Verified income statement | Self-employment, especially NHG |
| KvK extract | Registered business status | Self-employment |
| Residence permit | Legal right to reside | Expat status |
| Bank statements showing own funds | Available equity for purchase costs | Both |
Buying costs (kosten koper), which include valuation, notary fees, advisory costs and any NHG costs, typically add up to roughly 3 to 6 percent of the purchase price and need to be paid from your own funds. After signing the preliminary purchase agreement, you will usually need to provide a deposit of 10 percent of the purchase price, either from savings or through a bank guarantee. Valuation costs, notary fees for the mortgage deed, advisory fees and NHG costs are tax-deductible in the year of purchase. Transfer tax (overdrachtsbelasting) and the fee for a buying agent are not deductible, so it is worth budgeting for those separately. The full process, from application to final approval, usually takes around four to six weeks once your file is complete. You can find more about the advisors handling these files, including their language skills and specialisations, on the team page.
Yes, NHG is available to self-employed expats under the same conditions as anyone else. In 2026, the NHG limit is 470,000 euros, or 498,200 euros if you are also financing energy-saving measures. The one-time fee for NHG is 0.4 percent of the mortgage amount.
NHG-backed mortgages typically come with a lower interest rate because the lender’s risk is reduced, and an estimated 70 percent of expat home purchases may now qualify for NHG under the raised limit. If your business income assessment keeps your mortgage within that threshold, NHG is worth pursuing, both for the rate benefit and for the protection it offers if you are ever forced to sell at a loss due to circumstances like unemployment or disability.
Because NHG has no real equivalent in most other countries, it is one of the concepts that catches many expats by surprise, in a good way. Combined with the one-year self-employment route some lenders offer, it can make a mortgage realistic sooner than you might expect.
The 30 percent ruling is designed for salaried employees, so if you run your business as a sole trader, it generally does not apply to you directly. If you operate through your own BV and pay yourself a salary as director, it is worth discussing eligibility with a tax specialist, since the structure of your income matters more than your job title here.
Where the ruling does apply, it allows 30 percent of salary to be paid tax-free for up to five years, with the percentage set to drop to 27 percent for some new rulings from 2027 onwards. Even then, Dutch lenders generally calculate borrowing capacity based on your full gross income, not the reduced taxable portion, so the ruling mainly improves your net monthly income rather than the maximum mortgage you can borrow.
For most self-employed expats, the more relevant factor is simply how your business profit is assessed, not the 30 percent ruling. If you do have mixed income, part salaried and part self-employed, some lenders will combine both for a higher overall assessment, which is worth exploring with an advisor who knows the different bank policies.
Combining self-employment with expat status means your file needs extra explanation, and that is exactly where de Kredieter’s advisors focus their attention.
Ready to find out what is possible for you? Reach out via the contact page or follow @dekredieter.
