You pay double housing costs when you already live in your new home, or it is already in your name, while your old home has not yet been sold and transferred. You then have two mortgages and two sets of running costs. The easiest way to avoid this is to line up the transfer dates of both homes; if that does not work, you cover the period with savings, income or a bridging loan, and in 2026 you get part of the interest back through Dutch tax relief.
What you pay twice
The largest part is the mortgage. The loan on your old home runs until the day the buyer signs at the notary, and on the new home you pay interest, and possibly repayments, from the transfer onwards. If you have a bridging loan (overbruggingskrediet), there is interest on that loan as well.
The running costs of your old home also continue: municipal taxes, building insurance, owners' association (VvE) fees if you lived in an apartment, and energy and water as long as the connection is in your name. These amounts differ per home. List them before you make an offer, so you know what one month of double costs means for you.
Avoiding double costs
The safest way is to sell first and buy afterwards. You then know what your home sells for and how much equity you have. The downside is that you may need to live somewhere else for a while if the new home is not ready in time.
If you buy first, the transfer date largely decides how long you pay twice. You agree a date both when selling your old home and when buying the new one. The closer those dates are, the shorter the period of double costs. This is settled in the negotiations, so raise it early with your estate agent.
New-build homes work differently. The completion date is often not fixed yet, and during construction you already pay interest on the part of the loan the builder has received. That makes it harder to match the sale of your old home to the completion date.
What the lender assesses
For the new mortgage, the lender checks whether you can afford the payments. The lender may leave out the costs of the mortgage on your unsold home, including the costs of a bridging loan. The condition is that it is plausible you can keep paying both mortgages for a period the lender considers reasonable. This is set out in Article 4(6) of the Dutch Temporary Regulation on Mortgage Credit (rules for 2026).
In practice, the lender wants to see how you will cover several months of double costs, from your income or your savings. How many months it assumes differs per lender.
Tax relief on two homes in 2026
During this period the Belastingdienst lets you deduct interest on both homes, under conditions.
For your old home, you can keep deducting the interest in the year you move and the three years after. The home must be empty, for sale and not rented out, and it must have been your main residence in the year of the move or the three years before.
For the new home, you can deduct the interest before you live there, if it is empty or under construction and you move in that year or within three years. Interest on a bridging loan is also deductible, for the maximum term of that loan.
If you rent out your old home temporarily, you lose the deduction for that home while the rental lasts. The home and its mortgage then fall into box 3. If the rental ends within the three-year period, you can deduct the interest again afterwards.
You do pay the double costs yourself first. With a provisional assessment (voorlopige aanslag), you receive the relief every month instead of only after filing your tax return. If your mortgage interest changes because of the move, you update the amount in your provisional assessment.
An example from Almere
This example is indicative and based on the 2026 rules. The amounts are assumptions.
A family lives in a terraced house in Almere Haven and buys a larger home in Almere Poort. They get the keys to the new home on 1 April. Their old home has been sold, but the buyer only wants the transfer on 1 July.
Suppose the mortgage on the old home costs them € 1,000 gross per month and its running costs are € 250 per month. Three months of double costs then means € 3,750 extra, on top of the costs of the new home. They pay that from income or savings. They get part of the interest back through the provisional assessment, because both homes meet the conditions for relief during this period.
Had the old home not been sold yet, the family would not have known how long the double costs would last. The interest on the old home then remains deductible until 31 December 2029 at the latest, as long as it is empty and for sale, but the costs themselves also continue until the sale.
Bridging with savings or a loan
If you can pay a few months of double costs from savings, that is often the simplest option. If you need the equity in your old home to buy the new one, a bridging loan comes into view. How it works and what it costs is explained in Bridging loan: when do you need one and what does it cost?
If you take your current mortgage with you to the new home, also read Taking your mortgage with you to a new home. Our page for people moving home has more on moving to your next home, and the page mortgage advisor in Almere explains how we work.
Moving soon and want to know how long you can manage double costs? Book a free introductory meeting at our office on Schoutstraat in Almere, in English or Dutch. We will work it out with your own figures.