From ground lease to own land

Leasehold is the right to use the land owned by the municipality for a certain period in return for paying ground rent. The municipality then remains the owner of the land. Leaseholders can become the owner of their land in a number of cases.

Considerations for buying the leasehold land from the municipality include:

• You have plans to expand or change the property.
• Ownership could be more appealing to you than ground lease.
• If you want to sell your home, full ownership is more attractive to future buyers.

Are you a leaseholder? And would you like to know whether you can purchase the land from the municipality? Look below at the map below.

Purchase of ownership map

Use the Begin external link: map(External link), end external link. to check whether the purchase is permitted:

• Enter your street name and house number in the search field.
• Click next to the house number on the map. You will see if you can purchase your plot from the municipality. You can right away use a link to look up the property value (WOZ-waarde) of your home.

The municipality has the following conditions for converting ground lease into your own land:

• Your residential property, business, office or retail shop must be located in an area where the municipality is willing to sell the land.
• There needs to be a current zoning plan for this area.
• It should be the 1st release of the leasehold land, or you must have a perpetual leasehold contract from after 1986. And the leasehold must be paid off for the entire duration (in perpetuity). If you do not have this, you must first have your current contract converted into a lease in perpetuity. See the information Begin link: Leasehold contract expires within 15 years, end link. .
• For residential properties: You are the owner and you are living in the property yourself. You can only purchase the ground lease land if you are living in the property yourself (with your family members).
• For a business, office or retail shop: You are a small business owner. This means that the business, office or retail shop meets the following 3 conditions:
  • the gross floor area, based on the WOZ registration, is less than 500 square metres and
  • it is located in a residential street or a through road
  • its function is subordinate to the main building
• For apartments you can purchase the land if:
  • all apartment rights in the building meet the conditions above
  • and the application is submitted by or on behalf of the Homeowners Association (Vereniging van Eigenaren)
• You will not be able to purchase any land designated for specific purposes, such as social functions.

• The purchase price is a fixed amount which is determined by the property value (WOZ-waarde) for each individual address. See the rates in the table below.
• You may have to pay an amount on top of the purchase price if the zoning plan allows the building to be expanded or assigned other functions.
• If you have a leasehold contract concluded before 1986, you must first apply for a reissue in combination with a buy out. The municipality will ask you to pay € 750 towards the appraisal costs. You will get this amount back if you make use of the offer.
• You are liable for any costs of acquiring ownership. These include the notary fees, transfer tax, land registry costs and any appraisal and mortgage costs.

Rates for acquiring ownership

The price categories are for the property value in 2024:

*If the property value is not known, the purchase price will be derived from the deed in hand value based on the ownership situation. This is the price you paid for the purchase of your newly-built home.

• For a reissue in combination with the purchase of ownership: approximately 8 weeks. The time needed by the notary is not included in this estimate.
• For only acquiring ownership: approximately 6 weeks. The time needed by the notary is not included in this estimate.

• Begin link: Ground lease, end link.
• Begin link: Ground lease and reissuing policy, end link. (in Dutch)
• Begin external link: Algemene Bepalingen verkoop levering bloot eigendom erfpacht 2008 (RIS303497)(External link), end external link.

Watch the video: Je Haagse wooncarrière (YouTube channel of the municipality)(External link)