Why does social housing often exclude expats?

The Dutch housing market in 2026 will be an impregnable fortress for many, but for expats, the door to the most affordable sector, social rent, often seems hermetically closed. While international employees play a crucial role in the Dutch economy, they are usually in the most expensive segment of the free sector in the housing market. This often raises the question whether there is deliberate exclusion. The reality, however, is a complex interplay of income limits, years of waiting lists and strict allocation rules that, although not specifically designed to ban expats, do have that effect in practice.

In this article, we dive into the mechanisms behind the social rental sector and explain why this form of living will be virtually unattainable for the average expat in 2026.

The income threshold: Victim of your own success

The main reason why expats are excluded from social rent is financial. In the Netherlands, social housing is legally reserved for people with a lower income. Housing corporations must “allocate” their homes appropriately, which means that the income must match the rent.

In 2026, the following strict income limits apply to social rent (homes with a bare rent of up to €932.93):

• Single-person households: Up to €51,537 per year.
• Multi-person households: Up to €56,910 per year.

Most highly skilled migrants and specialized expats brought to the Netherlands earn salaries that are well above these limits. Even with the austerity of the expat scheme (the 30% ruling) in 2026, the gross income of most internationals remains too high to even qualify for registration with a housing association. They are thus referred directly to the middle rent or the free sector.

The time factor: Decade waiting lists

Even if an expat has an income that falls below the threshold, for example a starting PhD student or a junior researcher, the time factor is an insurmountable barrier. In 2026, the waiting lists for social housing in popular regions such as Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven continued to rise.

In the Randstad, the average waiting time in 2026 is often 8 to 12 years. Because most expats have a temporary contract or come to the Netherlands for a period of three to five years, subscribing to a waiting list is a pointless exercise. By the time they top the list, their contracts are usually already up or they have moved on to another phase in their career. In the Netherlands, social rent is a system that rewards loyal subscribers, which is detrimental to the mobile, international workforce.

Priority rules and urgencies

The limited range of social housing will be allocated as a priority to specific groups in 2026. Municipalities have strict rules for those who get “urgency”. These are often people with medical needs, victims of domestic violence, or outflows from social care.

Expats rarely fall under these urgency categories. In fact, many housing regulations give priority to local home seekers who have an economic or social connection with the region. Although an expat has an economic connection through his employer, this often weighs less heavily in the social segment than the years of local loyalty of a resident who has lived in the same municipality all his life. The social rental sector is primarily designed as a social safety net for the local population, not as flexible housing for international employees.

The complexity of the registration system

The process of gaining access to social rent is bureaucratic and entirely in Dutch. In 2026, almost all regions will work with central distribution systems (such as WoningNet or Dak).

• Documentation: Submitting an income statement from the tax authorities (the IB60 statement) is required. For expats who have just arrived in the Netherlands, this statement often does not exist for the previous year, which makes the application difficult.
• Active search: The system requires that people respond to ads on a weekly basis. For someone who doesn't speak the language and isn't familiar with the different neighborhoods, this is a time-consuming task that is often given up in favor of the faster (but more expensive) free sector.

The shift to the free sector and middle rent

In 2026, a clear policy change will be visible where expats are explicitly encouraged to rent in the middle rent. This segment, with rents between €932.93 and €1,228.07, was created to relieve pressure on the social sector.

Hosts in the free sector often focus their marketing specifically on expats with shouts like “Expats Only”. Although this sometimes balances on the edge of discrimination from a legal point of view, it does indicate that the market sees the expat as a tenant for the higher segment. The expatriate is not seen by the market, and indirectly by the government, as the target group for subsidised housing, but as a wealthy consumer who keeps the commercial rental market running.

The absence of a social safety net need

The philosophy behind social housing is to provide housing security to the most vulnerable. Expats are expected to be “self-reliant” in the 2026 Dutch policy framework. After all, their arrival to the Netherlands is based on a job with an income that allows them to rent on the private market.

Although this is true for a large group, it causes problems for the “middle income expat”. They earn too much for social rent, but are struggling in the free sector with rents that consume more than half of their net income. Nevertheless, the policy remains unchanged: the social rental stock is too scarce to open to a group that is by definition seen as temporary and economically strong.

The exclusion of expatriates from social housing is therefore not an active policy of bullying, but the result of a system that is simply not designed for the dynamics of international migration. In a country where the waiting lists for its own population have been long for decades, protecting the weakest local shoulders is always a priority over housing temporary talent.