Home and living

Relocation App
You’re in the process to relocate to the Netherlands. The Welcome to NL Relocation App will be your guide to make your transition to the Netherlands as smooth as possible, and includes all the steps you will have to take. So you know what to arrange before you move to the Netherlands, upon arrival and when settling in.
Welcome to the next step in your journey to The Netherlands. To register for the Relocation App you fill in the form and send in your application. You will receive your customized download link by email within a few hours. Then you can take the next step to make the Netherlands your new home away from home: Welcome-to-nl.nl/immigration/relocation.

Welcome to NL
It’s all here. A thriving business climate, industry-leading innovation, an inclusive culture and all the elements of career success. The Netherlands welcomes international recruits with open arms, and is continually ranked a great place to live. Read more about working and living in The Netherlands: Www.welcome-to-nl.nl.

Holland Expat Center South
When you move to a new country there are a lot of things that you must arrange. Holland Expat Center South is here to help you to settle into the province of Noord-Brabant! More info: Hollandexpatcenter.com/en.

Cooling off period
As a buyer you may terminate the agreement regarding the purchase during a cooling-off period of 3 days without giving any reason. There are no costs involved. After that, you can only cancel the purchase if you have to invoke one of the resolutive conditions. 

Resolutive conditions
Be sure to carefully draw up the resolutive conditions in the purchase contract. This way you can cancel the purchase if necessary. For example, are you not able to obtain a mortgage? Then you must dissolve the purchase agreement in writing within a certain period. As proof you often also have to send a rejection of the mortgage application from at least one finance company.
Be ware; the wording of a resolutive condition is important and if there is no resolutive condition, you cannot get rid of the agreement at all. Not even if you don’t get the mortgage.

Bank guarantee
When you buy a home, you usually don’t pay the purchase price right away. This happens when the notarial deed for delivery at the notary is signed, sometimes months later. To protect the sellers, in most cases they want you as a buyer to deposit a deposit or provide a bank guarantee after signing the deed of sale. This gives the seller more certainty that you will actually purchase the home.

This deposit is usually 10% of the agreed purchase price and must usually be paid within one week after the expiry of the resolutive conditions. You transfer this deposit to the notary.

If you do not have enough savings to deposit this deposit, the bank guarantee is an alternative. Whit a bank guarantee the bank declares that is guarantees the amount if you do not meet the obligations. A bank guarantee has the advantage that you do not have to use your savings.
Providing a bank guarantee costs money. The bank usually charges 1% of the amount for which the bank guarantee costs.

If you want to make an offer on a home this must be submitted in writing. Making an offer is therefore never binding. Even if your offer is accepted by the seller. Your offer is only binding if the seller has agreed and the sale has been recorded in the purchase contract.

In many cases, a valuation report is required to obtain the mortgage. An appraisal is used to estimate the value of a home. In the event of a renovation, the appraiser also makes an estimate of the value after is has been completed.

A structural engineer will help you investigate the structural condition of the home. He provides an inspection report with an exact description of the state of maintenance of the home. In addition, it gives you an insight into the costs of getting the house in good condition.

Most new-build homes and apartments are built within a larger project. This is also known as project construction. It has advantages for you as a buyer, but it also gives you a little less freedom than when you have a custom home built.

Building together 
You hear it more and more often, a group of people realizing their dream home together. Collective Private Commissioning called CPO. Examples of this are: iedereenkanbouwen.nl.

Self-build
If you buy or have a piece of land, you can have a house built on it that fits your own taste. You ensure that all parties (architect, contractor, etc.) work well together. You make decisions and monitor the planning. You can of course also hire an experienced project manager to help you.

Catalog house
Many construction companies offer catalog homes; fixes models that you can adapt to your wishes. You can compare it with buying a car: A fixed entrylevel model, but you can adapt is to your own wishes. The advantage of a catalog house is that they can often be built more quickly and are relatively cheap.
Examples are: groothuis.nl livingstone.org or brummelhuis.nl.

An existing home generally has a lot more ambience than a new-build home. In addition, the neighborhood is usually more developed. As a buyer, you can often take over movable articles of goods such as curtains of the carpet. The garden is often already laid out.

The supply of existing homes is much larger and moren varied thad the number of newly built homes. Furthermore, the time between purchase and transfer is much shorten than with a house that only exists on paper.

Because the house is not new, you may experience higher maintenance costs in the first few years. Depending on the condition of the house, you can even spend a lot of money on overdue maintenance. Perhaps the house is poorly insulated of the heating and electricity are outdated. You will then need an extra capital injection.