Is my rent too high? How to calculate your maximum rent under the Dutch WWS points system

If you're searching for this, you probably already suspect the answer: you're paying too much rent. Here's the short version, and then I'll explain how to check it yourself.

In the Netherlands, the maximum rent for a regulated home isn't a matter of what a landlord asks and you accept. It's set by a points system — the Woningwaarderingsstelsel, or WWS — which turns the features of your home into points, and those points into a maximum monthly rent. If your actual rent sits above that maximum, you're probably overpaying, and you can do something about it.

Working it out takes a few minutes. That's what I built HuurScan for. But you don't need to download the app to understand how it works — so let me explain the system itself first.

What the WWS actually is

The WWS is a list. Your home earns points for the things that objectively make it worth more or less:

• Floor area — square metres of living space, measured per room.
• Energy label — an A++++ home scores considerably higher than one labelled G.
• WOZ value — your home's assessed value counts, with a cap so expensive neighbourhoods can't drive the rent up endlessly.
• Outdoor space — balcony, garden, roof terrace.
• Kitchen and bathroom — quality and finish, counter length, the type of tap, whether there's a second toilet.
• Heating, parking, shared facilities — it all counts.

Add up all the points and you get a total. That total maps to a maximum rent, set in a table the government updates every year (usually on 1 July). It isn't an estimate and it isn't an opinion — it's arithmetic. That's exactly what makes it useful: the same home gives everyone the same answer.

One threshold is worth knowing. Up to and including 186 points, your home falls under rent protection and a legal maximum applies. From 187 points, the home is liberalised and the rent is free. A lot of people believe they're in the free sector when they aren't — and that's often exactly where the money is.

Why this suddenly matters

The WWS has been around for a long time, but the Wet betaalbare huur (Affordable Rent Act) gave it a sharp edge. It's been in force since July 2024, and fully enforced since January 2025. Two things changed that matter.

First, a new mid-rent segment was added (144 to 186 points), pulling homes that used to be called "free sector" under regulation. Second, a landlord is now legally required to provide a WWS points calculation with every new rental contract. The calculation you used to have to dig for, you're now supposed to be handed.

In practice that often doesn't happen, and not everyone knows the calculation can be checked. That's the whole opening.

How do you know if you're overpaying?

Three steps.

One: work out your home's points total. You'll need the floor area, your energy label, the WOZ value (it's on your latest WOZ assessment from the municipality), and the basics of your kitchen, bathroom and outdoor space.

Two: look up which maximum rent that points total corresponds to.

Three: put that maximum next to what you actually pay. If you're above it, there's a good chance your rent is too high.

This is an indicative calculation, not a ruling — and that's an important distinction. The official ruling comes from the Huurcommissie (the Rent Tribunal), the government body that settles rent disputes. What a calculation of your own gives you is something different and just as valuable: knowing whether it's worth taking that step, before you take it.

What you can do next — and why timing is everything

This is where it gets concrete, and where you need to be precise, because the law has one sharp deadline.

For a new rental contract, you can ask the Huurcommissie to assess the starting rent (the aanvangshuurprijs) — up to six months after the start date of your contract. That deadline is fatal: it can't be extended. And the difference it makes is large. Ask for the assessment within those six months and the Huurcommissie rules your rent too high, and the reduction applies retroactively to the start of your contract — you get the overpaid rent back from day one.

Miss that window and you're not out of options — for homes up to 186 points you can still propose a rent reduction afterwards — but a reduction like that only applies going forward. No money back for the months before. The difference between "within six months" and "after" is, quite literally, the difference between everything back and just stopping the bleeding.

That's why it's worth running the numbers the moment you have a suspicion, rather than whenever you happen to find the time. The specifics vary by contract type and start date, and the Huurcommissie is always the place for the official ruling — but knowing where you stand starts with those few minutes of arithmetic.

Where HuurScan fits

I built HuurScan because this whole process is exactly the kind of chore a phone should do, not you with a calculator and six government tables. You enter your home's features, and the app works out the points and your maximum rent, using the same points tables as the official calculation.

Two things I chose on purpose.

The calculation and the answer are free. Your maximum rent, your points total, an indication of how much you're overpaying per year — none of that costs anything. It would be strange to charge you to tell you whether you have a problem. What €4.99 (once) unlocks is the next part: working out the route that fits your situation, and the right letter to your landlord or the Huurcommissie as a PDF, with the step-by-step to go with it. The anxious question — "am I overpaying?" — the app answers for free. The next step — "now what?" — is the premium part. Once, no subscription.

And it runs on your phone. No account, no login, no server of mine that sees your details. Your WOZ value, your address, your rent: they stay on your device. The app works without internet, because the WWS formula is simply law — it's built in.

What HuurScan is not: a replacement for the Huurcommissie. There's no integration with the Huurcommissie, and I don't claim one. The app gives you an indicative calculation and points you the way there. The official ruling comes from them.

But it all starts with the answer to that one question. And that answer is a few minutes away.

— O, Spookwerk