The WOZ-cap is why that tiny Amsterdam apartment may still be a regulated rental

Almost every international renter I talk to in Amsterdam believes the same thing: central postcode, high property value, therefore free sector, therefore the landlord can charge whatever the market bears.

That belief is wrong often enough that it's worth writing about.

The agent shows you a 32m² studio near the Jordaan, the listing says €1,650, and you assume that's just what living in the centre costs. Nobody mentions the points system. Nobody mentions that the apartment might legally be a regulated rental where the maximum is hundreds of euros lower.

The reason this gap exists is a piece of regulation most renters have never heard of: the WOZ-cap. It quietly changed which homes count as deregulated, and a lot of landlords and agents are still pricing as if it doesn't exist.

Dutch rent isn't supposed to be set by demand. It's set by the Woningwaarderingsstelsel, the WWS — a points system that scores a home on floor area, energy label, amenities, and the WOZ value, the municipality's official market valuation of the property.

Add up the points and you land in one of three bands. Up to 143 points is social housing, fully regulated. From 144 to 186 is the mid-range, middenhuur, which became regulated in July 2024. From 187 points upward, you're in the free sector and there's no legal maximum.

That 187-point line is the whole game. Below it, the rent is challengeable at the Huurcommissie. Above it, the landlord names the price.

The WOZ value was added as a major component back in 2015 and could count for up to 35% of a home's total points. The idea was to let location and market value feed into rent in expensive cities. In Amsterdam, that backfired.

Here's the problem the old rules created. Amsterdam property values exploded over the past decade. Because WOZ counted so heavily, a tiny, poorly equipped apartment could rack up enough points purely on its sale value to cross 187 — and get deregulated.

So you'd have a 30m² studio with no balcony, a mediocre kitchen, and a WOZ value of €400,000, and on paper it counted as a luxury free-sector home. Not because of anything inside it. Purely because of where it sat on the map.

That's location-driven liberalisation, and it priced middle- and lower-income renters out of the centre. The same renters who actually keep a city running.

The response, introduced in 2022, was the WOZ-cap.

The WOZ-cap limits how much the WOZ value can contribute to the total: a maximum of 33% of a home's WWS points. If the WOZ component would push past that share, it gets trimmed back down.

In plain terms: market value can no longer single-handedly drag a small flat into the free sector. The points have to come from the property itself — size, energy efficiency, amenities — not just its price tag.

Take that €400,000 studio. Without the cap, the WOZ points alone might shove it past 187. With the cap, the WOZ contribution is held to a third of the total, and the flat can stay below the threshold. Which means it lands in the mid-range, regulated band, with a legal maximum rent.

This isn't a rounding error. In some cases the cap forced rents down by as much as 50% on homes that had only been liberalised because of their address.

For 2026 the regulated ceilings are concrete. Social housing, up to 143 points, tops out at €932.93 a month. The mid-range, 144 to 186 points, is capped at €1,228.07. Only at 187+ does the maximum disappear.

So go back to that €1,650 studio near the Jordaan. If the points fall in the mid-range — and after the WOZ-cap a small flat often does — the legal maximum could be around €1,228. That's roughly €420 a month the tenant shouldn't be paying. Over a year, that's real money.

Rent increases are capped too. For 2026 the limits are 4.1% for social, 6.1% for mid-range, and 4.4% for the free sector. A regulated home isn't just cheaper at the start; it stays protected.

And if you suspect you're being overcharged, you can take it to the Huurcommissie. Tenants who challenge a regulated rent that's set too high can recover serious sums — guides put it in the thousands per year. The catch is you have to know your home qualifies. Most internationals never check.

Two reasons. First, the cap is recent and the habit of 'central equals free sector' is deeply baked in. A lot of listings are still priced on postcode and sale value rather than an honest points count.

Second, some landlords don't love the answer the cap gives them. The regulation pushed a chunk of homes back into regulated territory, and the response has been pushback — landlords selling rather than accepting lower regulated rents, and organisations like Stichting Fair Huur taking the government to court, arguing the cap breaches property rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.

There are also reform proposals floating around: a WOZ surcharge that would let landlords on new contracts charge closer to the pre-cap points total, potentially adding around €100 a month, plus tweaks like dropping penalty points for missing outdoor space. Nothing settled yet. The cap stands.

None of that changes what you should do as a renter. The law as it works today says your central flat might be regulated. Don't take the listing price as proof it isn't.

When we built House Hunter, the whole point was speed — watching 1,000-plus sites and pinging renters the moment a match appears, because in Amsterdam and Utrecht the good listings vanish in hours. But speed without knowledge just gets you into a bad contract faster.

So here's the thing I tell people. Before you sign on a small central flat priced like free sector, run the points yourself. There are free WWS calculators where you plug in the floor area, energy label, amenities, and the WOZ value — and the WOZ value is public, you can look it up. If the total lands under 187, you're likely in regulated territory.

If it does, you have leverage. You can negotiate before signing, or challenge the rent at the Huurcommissie after. Either way, the assumption that a tiny flat in the centre is automatically deregulated is exactly the assumption the WOZ-cap was built to break.

Check the points. The postcode doesn't decide your rent anymore.