Your maximum mortgage as an expat can differ by tens of thousands of euros from one lender to the next, even with identical income. Lenders do not follow one shared formula. Each bank sets its own rules for allowances, temporary contracts, the 30% ruling, and foreign income, and those choices directly change the number you see in your mortgage offer.
Many expat employees receive more than a base salary. Housing allowances, relocation payments, and international assignment bonuses often make up a real part of your monthly income, and whether a lender counts them changes what you can borrow.
In practice, this is one of the biggest sources of variation. Some banks accept structural, documented allowances as part of your qualifying income, meaning the amount your mortgage is based on. Others count only your base salary and leave the rest out entirely, even when your employer confirms the payment is permanent and written into your contract.
The weighting differs too. A lender that accepts your housing allowance might still only count 70 or 80 percent of it, while another counts the full amount. Two applicants with the exact same payslip can walk away from two banks with a different maximum mortgage purely because of this one policy choice.
What matters most is documentation. An allowance that appears in your employment contract or employer statement as a structural payment stands a far better chance of being accepted than one that looks incidental or temporary, regardless of which lender you approach.
Not in the way most expats expect. Dutch lenders generally calculate your maximum mortgage based on your full gross salary, as if the entire amount were taxable, so the 30% ruling mainly boosts your net income rather than the figure a bank uses to determine your maximum mortgage.
Where lenders start to differ is in how they handle the years after your ruling ends. The 30% ruling gives qualifying highly skilled migrants a tax-free portion of their salary for up to five years, and in 2026 that percentage is still 30 percent. Some lenders stress-test your affordability for the period after the ruling expires, effectively asking whether you could still carry the mortgage on a lower net income. Others do not build that scenario into their assessment at all.
Say your gross salary is 90,000 euros with the 30% ruling in place. One lender may look purely at the gross figure and calculate your maximum mortgage without adjustment. Another may run a second calculation for the years after the ruling lapses and set your maximum slightly lower to keep your monthly payment manageable long term. Both approaches are legitimate, but they do not produce the same outcome.
If your ruling started before 2024, note that the percentage itself is not changing for you under the current transitional arrangement, even though newer applicants will see the tax-free share drop to 27 percent from January 2027. That distinction matters when a lender models your future income.
The fixed-rate period you choose is not just a decision about interest cost. It also determines which interest rate the lender is legally required to use when testing whether you can afford the loan, and that test rate has a direct effect on your maximum mortgage.
For fixed periods shorter than ten years, lenders must apply a test rate (toetsrente) of around 5 percent in 2026, even if the actual rate they offer you is closer to 3.5 to 4 percent. Choose a fixed period of ten years or longer, and the lender can use the actual contracted rate instead, which usually allows for a noticeably higher maximum mortgage.
The gap can be substantial. As an illustration, a household that qualifies for roughly 679,000 euros in 2026 under the 5 percent test rate might qualify for closer to 735,000 euros with a ten-year fixed rate around 3.8 percent, purely because of which rate the lender is required to test against. Since not every lender prices every fixed-rate period the same way, this single choice can be the deciding factor in which bank offers you the highest maximum mortgage.
Two expats with identical income can be treated very differently depending on how long they have lived in the Netherlands and what kind of employment contract they hold, simply because lenders set their own minimum requirements.
Some lenders will consider your application after as little as one month of Dutch residence, while others ask for six months or longer before they will even calculate a maximum mortgage for you. If you are newly arrived, this alone can rule out certain banks regardless of how strong your income looks on paper.
Temporary contracts follow a similar pattern. A lender may accept a fixed-term contract as long as your employer provides an intentieverklaring, a written statement of intent confirming they plan to extend or make your position permanent. Not every lender treats this letter the same way, and some weigh it more heavily than others when deciding your maximum mortgage.
Salary currency is another practical filter. Most lenders require your income to be paid in euros, so foreign-currency salary structures, common for employees of international organisations, can eliminate certain banks from consideration before income calculations even begin. If you are exploring your options, the team at independent mortgage advisers deals with these cross-border cases regularly.
Nationale Hypotheek Garantie, a government-backed guarantee scheme, tends to narrow the differences between lenders rather than widen them. Because NHG reduces the lender’s credit risk, mortgages within its limit often come with a lower interest rate regardless of which bank you choose.
Per 2026 the NHG limit is 470,000 euros, rising to 498,200 euros when energy-saving measures are included. If your target property falls within that range, an estimated 70 percent of expat home purchases may now qualify under the raised limit, and the rate benefit tends to be more consistent across lenders than it is for mortgages above the threshold.
Above the NHG limit, lender differences become sharper again. Each bank sets its own risk appetite for larger loans, and that is exactly where allowance treatment, the 30% ruling approach and fixed-rate pricing start to pull your maximum mortgage in different directions.
| Factor | Why it varies by lender | Effect on your maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Allowances and bonuses | Some lenders count structural allowances, others do not | Can raise or lower qualifying income significantly |
| 30% ruling handling | Some lenders stress-test the years after it ends | May reduce your maximum for long-term safety |
| Fixed-rate period | Determines whether the test rate or actual rate is used | Can shift your maximum by tens of thousands of euros |
| Residence and contract type | Minimum residence and intentieverklaring policies differ | Can rule certain lenders in or out entirely |
Comparing lenders one by one takes real time, and the differences above show why that comparison matters so much for expats specifically.
The team works with expat clients across the Randstad on exactly these cross-lender comparisons.
Reach out via @dekredieter, visit www.kredieter.nl or call 020-5753320 to talk through your situation, or get in touch directly through the contact page.
Yes, you can request indications from multiple lenders before choosing one. Each application takes time and sometimes a fee, so most applicants compare on paper first using their income profile, then apply formally with the one or two lenders most likely to offer the highest maximum mortgage for their situation.
No, Dutch mortgage rules apply equally regardless of nationality, and there is no separate loan-to-value limit or interest rate based on citizenship. Differences between lenders come from practical factors instead, such as residence duration, contract type, and how your specific income is documented, not from where you are originally from.
Lenders vary noticeably here. Some accept income from international organisations or non-EU employers if it is paid in euros and well documented, while others restrict qualifying income to EU-based, euro-denominated salary only. This is one of the clearer cases where lender choice can determine whether your application is even possible.
Most applications take four to six weeks from submission to final approval, though this can extend if a lender requests additional documentation for foreign income or a temporary contract. Starting the comparison process early gives you more room to switch lenders if one turns out to be a poor fit for your profile.
