Can I get rent allowance (huurtoeslag)?

The short answer

Rent allowance is a contribution to your rent from the Dutch government. To get it you have to meet every one of these conditions. This page shows which of them your answers meet. It cannot tell you whether you get the allowance or how much: your income and assets decide that.

The official conditions

• You rent a self-contained home.
• You and the landlord have a rental agreement.
• Your income, and that of your benefit partner and co-residents, is not too high. How high it may be depends on your rent, your age and the make-up of your household.
• Your assets, and those of your benefit partner and co-residents, are not too high. You may not have too much, for example in savings.
• You live in the Netherlands. If you do not live in the Netherlands, you cannot get rent allowance.
• You and the other residents are registered at your home address with the municipality.
• Your co-resident or benefit partner is not the owner of the home.
• You, your benefit partner and your co-residents aged 18 or older have the Dutch nationality or are legally in the Netherlands.
• You are 18 years or older. People under 18 only have a right to rent allowance in exceptional cases.
• You pay the rent and can prove it with bank statements.

Rent and service costs

• Up to and including 2025 there was one more condition: the rent could not be higher than a maximum rent limit. From 1 January 2026 that condition is gone, so a higher rent can sometimes still give rent allowance, if all the other conditions are met. The amount of the allowance is still worked out with a maximum rent.
• From 1 January 2026 service costs no longer count: the allowance is based on the basic rent (kale huur).

Your situation

Situations with different rules

• The rules are somewhat different if you are co-parents, if you are under 18, if you have lived away from home for more than a year, if you receive care at home, if you are disabled and under 21, if you are under 21 and stay in your parental home after the death of your parent or parents, if you receive a back payment of income or a lump sum, if you receive compensation, or if you rent or let your home temporarily.

Rooms, students and other homes

• A self-contained home has at least these features: its own living and sleeping room, its own kitchen with a sink, a water supply and drain and a connection for a cooker, its own toilet with a flush, its own front door that you can lock from the inside and the outside, and, since 1 March 2024, its own washing facility: a shower or a bath. If you share the toilet, kitchen, shower or bath with other tenants, it is not a self-contained home.
• Not every self-contained home qualifies: for a houseboat you cannot get rent allowance, and for a holiday home you usually cannot either. For some homes that are not self-contained you can get it after all.
• It does not matter who you rent from: an agent, a housing corporation or a private landlord.
• If you rent a room you usually cannot get rent allowance. If you and other students rent a self-contained home together, you can apply together for the whole home: the person on the rental contract applies and the others count as co-residents. If your room in an older student complex was designated for rent allowance before 1 July 1997, you can sometimes get it. The student housing website usually says so, and you can always ask the landlord.

If you are not Dutch

• If you have the nationality of an EU country, Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland or Switzerland, you must have a valid residence status that entitles you to benefits. The municipality informs the Belastingdienst about this.
• If you have another nationality, you can only get rent allowance if you have a valid residence permit that entitles you to benefits. The municipality informs the Belastingdienst about this, and the IND website has more about residence permits.
• A partner or co-resident aged 18 or older must also be lawfully in the Netherlands. If they do not yet have a residence permit, you may still get rent allowance if they are waiting for a decision on an application, or if they have appealed against a rejection and may wait for the decision in the Netherlands.

Applying

• You can apply yourself in Mijn toeslagen once you are registered with the municipality. The allowance starts on the first day of a month. If you are not yet registered on the first day of the month, it starts the next month.
• The trial calculation of the Belastingdienst (in Dutch) shows whether you get an allowance and how much. It is better not to use it if you live abroad and have childcare allowance or the child-related budget, if you have special assets, or if you are in a special situation for the rent allowance.

Official pages

• Dienst Toeslagen: conditions for rent allowance (Dutch)
• Dienst Toeslagen: which homes qualify (Dutch)
• Dienst Toeslagen: rooms and students (Dutch)
• Dienst Toeslagen: I am not Dutch (English)

Before you rely on this

This page lists the conditions the Belastingdienst names and shows your answers beside them. It does not know your situation, your income or your assets, and it does not say whether you get rent allowance or how much: only the Dienst Toeslagen decides that. It is not legal advice.

Official sources

The statements on this page come from these pages, which we last checked on 11 October 2026.

• Dienst Toeslagen: voorwaarden (checked 11 October 2026)
• Dienst Toeslagen: kan ik huurtoeslag krijgen (checked 11 October 2026)
• Dienst Toeslagen: huurtoeslag verandert vanaf 2026 (checked 11 October 2026)
• Dienst Toeslagen: voor welke woningen huurtoeslag (checked 11 October 2026)
• Dienst Toeslagen: student op kamers huurtoeslag (checked 11 October 2026)
• Dienst Toeslagen: i live in a rented house (checked 11 October 2026)
• Dienst Toeslagen: i am not dutch can i get rent benefit (checked 11 October 2026)
• Dienst Toeslagen: hulpmiddel proefberekening toeslagen (checked 11 October 2026)

What this page does not cover

This tool applies the rules in our rule pack and the official pages listed below to the answers you give. It does not know your contract or your whole situation, and it is not legal advice. For advice about your situation, see the box below.