Room or studio: when is your rent too high?

In short
A room always has a maximum rent. According to the Huurcommissie, accommodation that isn't self-contained never falls in the free sector, however high the rent you agreed. A studio is a different matter: if it has its own front door and its own kitchen, shower or bath and toilet, it is usually a self-contained home. Then the points system for homes applies, and a studio can also be free sector. Under the table, the maximum basic rent for a room with 50 points is € 509.44 in 2026 and € 524.06 from 1 January 2027.

Short answer: whether your rent is too high first depends on whether you rent a room or a self-contained home. What counts isn't the word in the advert, but what you have to yourself: your own front door, your own kitchen, your own shower or bath and your own toilet. If you share any of those, you are renting a room, and a maximum rent always applies. Do the free huurprijscheck. In a few minutes you'll see whether your rent can go down.

When is it a room, and when a studio?

Dutch law separates self-contained homes from accommodation that isn't self-contained. Under article 7:234 of the Dutch Civil Code, a home is self-contained if it has its own entrance and you can live there without depending on essential facilities outside it. In its policy book, the Huurcommissie, the Dutch rent tribunal, lists those facilities: at least one room, your own cooking facility, your own washing facility such as a shower, and your own toilet. If one is missing, or if you share one with others, your accommodation isn't self-contained. In everyday terms: a room.

Two things often surprise tenants:

• A shared corridor doesn't turn a studio into a room. If you have all the facilities to yourself, but reach your own bathroom through a corridor you share with others, your studio is still self-contained according to the Huurcommissie.
• With three or more residents, the household counts too. If three or more people live there who don't form a lasting household together, such as housemates who each rent their own room, the accommodation isn't self-contained. According to the Huurcommissie, what the agreement says isn't decisive here; it looks at all the facts of the case.

Your studio is self-contained. What then?

Then your studio falls under the same points system as any other flat. Each number of points comes with a maximum basic rent, and with enough points a studio can be free sector. Where that line lies and which date counts is explained in Free sector or not? How to see whether your rent is above the maximum is in Is my rent too high?

You rent a room. What counts?

A room has its own points system, in annex I under B of the Rental Prices (Housing) Decree. According to the Huurcommissie, a room is always protected by a maximum rent: there is no free sector for rooms, and it doesn't matter how high the rent was that you agreed at the start. Broadly, these things count:

• Floor area. Your own room counts per square metre. A shared living room, kitchen or bathroom counts too, but divided by the number of rooms whose tenants may use it under their agreement. Everyone gets the same share, however big their own room is.
• Facilities. Heating, the kitchen (for example the length of the worktop), the bathroom and toilet, and a garden or balcony. Shared facilities are again split between the rooms that have access to them.
• The energy label of the whole address, with points per square metre of the rooms.
• The WOZ value (the municipal property value) of the whole address. It gives 10, 12 or 14 points, depending on how the WOZ value per square metre compares with the average in the region.
• Deductions. 4 points come off if the rooms that count for your room (your own room plus your share of the shared rooms) add up to less than 8 m², if your room or the bathroom can only be reached through the living room or bedroom of a landlord who lives there, if the glass in your main room is smaller than 0.75 m², or if the lowest window frame of your main room is more than 1.60 metres above the floor.

The total number of points comes with a maximum basic rent from a separate table for rooms, which is adjusted every year on 1 January. Under that table, the maximum at 40 points is € 407.58 in 2026 and € 419.28 from 1 January 2027, at 50 points € 509.44 and € 524.06, and at 60 points € 611.28 and € 628.83.

So a room is counted differently from a flat, and sharing makes a big difference. A shared living room of 20 m² with four housemates gives your room one room's share, not the full 20 m². So a shared space only counts towards your room in part.

What changes on 1 January 2027?

The points system for rooms has been changed by a decree in the Staatsblad, the Dutch official journal (Stb. 2026, 267), which takes effect on 1 January 2027. A few of the changes:

• Rooms will also get a minimum WOZ value. If the WOZ value is lower, that minimum counts instead. The same floor will apply again to homes from that date. The decree sets € 85,806 (the 2026 amount); that amount is adjusted every year on 1 January.
• Heated spaces that aren't rooms, such as a heated hallway or storage room, no longer have a maximum.
• The 4-point deduction no longer applies only when you have to go through the landlord's room, but also when your room or the bathroom can only be reached through someone else's private room, and the other way round.
• An agreed energy performance fee no longer changes the points for energy.

The new table of maximum rents for rooms is in the Staatscourant (Stcrt. 2026, 35093). Which rules apply to you depends on the reference date of your case. If you have the rent your tenancy started with assessed, the date your tenancy started counts. If you send your landlord a proposal to lower the rent, the date your proposed reduction takes effect counts.

Your rent is too high. What can you do?

1. Your tenancy started less than six months ago. Then you can have the rent your tenancy started with assessed. Your application must reach the Huurcommissie within six months of the start date of your tenancy; that deadline can't be extended. If the Huurcommissie sets a lower rent, it applies from the first day of your tenancy. If you had a temporary agreement of two years or less that was signed before 1 July 2024, you can still apply up to six months after it ended, according to the Huurcommissie.
2. You have lived there longer. Then you first send your landlord a proposal to lower the rent, with a points count attached, at least two calendar months before the start date you propose. If your landlord doesn't agree, you can apply to the Huurcommissie up to six weeks after that start date. For a room this is always possible, however high the rent was at the start.

Since 1 January 2025, your landlord has to attach a points count to every new tenancy agreement, according to the Huurcommissie. You can also make a points count yourself with the Huurprijscheck tool for shared accommodation of the Huurcommissie. My free huurprijscheck also works for rooms, and shows you straight away whether your rent can go down.

Do you also pay service charges on top of the basic rent, for example for energy, internet or furniture? Those fall outside this article; separate rules apply, set out in the policy book on service charges of the Huurcommissie.

Do it yourself or have it done?

You can do it yourself: count the points yourself, send the proposal to your landlord yourself and file the application yourself. Then you also handle the contact with your landlord yourself.

You can also leave it to me. You do the huurprijscheck, send your tenancy agreement and your latest rent increase letter, and sign the authorisation. I handle everything with your landlord and, if needed, at the Huurcommissie, and once your landlord knows you have legal support, things stay businesslike. I work on a no cure no pay basis. You pay afterwards, only once your landlord has agreed to my proposal or the Huurcommissie has ruled that your rent goes down. What it costs is on the prices page. The worst case? That the Huurcommissie doesn't rule that your rent goes down. Then everything stays as it is, and you pay me nothing.

Want to know whether you pay too much rent for your room or studio? Do the free huurprijscheck. In a few minutes you'll see whether your rent can go down.

Sources

• Huurcommissie, Policy book on the points system for shared accommodation, July 2026 (in Dutch): always a maximum rent and never free sector (§ 1.2), reference date and year (§ 1.3.1), sharing points (§ 2.1.4 and 2.1.5), floor area (§ 2.2), the WOZ value (§ 2.11), deductions (§ 2.13), the deadlines for assessing the starting rent and for a rent reduction (§ 3.1 and 3.2) and the 2026 table (annex 2).
• Huurcommissie, Policy book on the points system for self-contained homes, July 2026 (in Dutch): the essential facilities, a self-contained home reached through a shared corridor, and the lasting shared household (§ 1.4).
• Dutch Civil Code, article 7:234 (in Dutch): a self-contained home has its own entrance and doesn't depend on essential facilities outside it.
• Rental Prices (Housing) Decree, article 1(2) and annex I under B (in Dutch): the definition with two people or a lasting shared household, and the points system for shared accommodation.
• Staatsblad 2026, 267 (in Dutch): the changes to the points system for rooms from 1 January 2027.
• Staatscourant 2026, 35093 (in Dutch): the maximum rents for shared accommodation from 1 January 2027, with € 419.28 at 40 points, € 524.06 at 50 points and € 628.83 at 60 points.
• Dutch Civil Code, article 7:249 (in Dutch): assessment of the starting rent within six months.
• Dutch Civil Code, article 7:254 (in Dutch): the application up to six weeks after the proposed start date.
• Huurcommissie, Huurprijscheck for shared accommodation (in Dutch): the points count with every new tenancy agreement since 1 January 2025, and the tool itself.
• Huurcommissie, Policy book on service charges (in Dutch): the rules for service charges.