When you buy a home you calculate the mortgage, the buyer costs and maybe the maintenance. But there is a recurring cost that almost everyone overlooks: the municipal housing charges. And the differences are bigger than you would think. We compared 105 municipalities for 2026 — for exactly the same home — and the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive is €696 per year.
To make municipalities comparable, every amount below is calculated for the same reference home of €475,000 (WOZ value ≈ 95% of the price) and a two-person household. All figures come from the official 2026 municipal tax regulations. You can sort the full list yourself in our municipal housing charges 2026 comparison.
Quick summary
• The average across 105 municipalities is around €1,055 per year for our reference home.
• Cheapest: 's-Hertogenbosch (€795), Tilburg (€823) and Breda (€833).
• Most expensive: Bloemendaal (€1,491), Veendam (€1,454) and Kerkrade (€1,425).
• Difference between cheapest and most expensive: €696 per year — for the same home.
• Surprise: Amsterdam is one of the cheaper big cities (€899), while Groningen (€1,246) and Utrecht (€1,139) are well above average.
The three parts of your municipal charges
Your annual municipal housing charges are made up of three components:
• Property tax (OZB) — a percentage of the WOZ value of your home. This is the part that scales with how expensive your home is.
• Waste collection charge — for collecting and processing your household waste. Often depends on household size, and increasingly on how much residual waste you actually produce.
• Sewerage charge — for the maintenance of the sewer system. A fixed amount in most municipalities, but a percentage of the WOZ value in some.
Because each municipality sets its own rates for all three, the totals diverge enormously — and not always in the direction you would expect.
The most expensive municipalities
At the top of the ranking you find a mix of wealthy commuter municipalities and places with high waste or sewerage costs:
• Bloemendaal — €1,491
• Veendam — €1,454
• Kerkrade — €1,425
• Gouda — €1,357
• Wassenaar — €1,341
In the affluent municipalities (Bloemendaal, Wassenaar) it is mainly the high OZB and waste charges that drive up the total. Gouda is a special case: its sewerage charge alone is €573 — by far the highest in the country — because the soft, subsiding peat soil makes maintaining the sewers extremely expensive.
The cheapest municipalities
At the bottom, mostly mid-sized Brabant municipalities:
• 's-Hertogenbosch — €795
• Tilburg — €823
• Breda — €833
• Amstelveen — €840
• Veenendaal — €849
These municipalities combine a moderate OZB rate with relatively low waste and sewerage charges. For the same home, a resident of 's-Hertogenbosch pays €696 less per year than one in Bloemendaal — over ten years that is nearly €7,000.
The big cities: Amsterdam is surprisingly cheap
Many people assume the big cities are the most expensive. The reality is more nuanced:
• Amsterdam — €899
• Eindhoven — €928
• Nijmegen — €999
• Zaanstad — €1,028
• Rotterdam — €1,105
• Utrecht — €1,139
• Almere — €1,196
• Groningen — €1,246
Amsterdam keeps its total low mainly through a very low OZB rate (only €238 for our reference home). Nijmegen is remarkable for a different reason: its waste charge is just €33, because the municipality works with pay-as-you-throw (diftar) — you pay per bag or per emptying rather than a flat fee. Groningen, on the other hand, has both a high OZB rate and a high waste charge.
Why this matters when you are choosing where to buy
Municipal charges are a structural, recurring cost — you pay them every year, for as long as you own the home. Unlike your mortgage, they do not go down over time. A difference of €696 per year is comparable to a noticeable difference in interest rate, yet it rarely features in the buying decision.
It becomes especially relevant if you are choosing between two municipalities on the edge of a city, or comparing a slightly cheaper home in an expensive municipality with a slightly pricier one next door. The recurring charges can quietly tip the balance.
What you can do with this
• Look up your own municipality and household size in the full 2026 ranking of all 105 municipalities, sortable by OZB, waste, sewerage or total.
• Calculate the exact amount for your own home price with the municipal charges calculator.
• Weigh it against renting with the rent vs buy calculator, which already includes municipal charges on the buying side.
Note: amounts are indicative and calculated for a reference home; your own charges depend on your WOZ value, household size and the exact rates of your municipality. Municipalities can adjust their rates annually. Always check your municipality's own website for the definitive figures.
Sources
• Municipal charges per municipality: our own dataset, based on the official 2026 municipal tax regulations
• Reference home €475,000 (WOZ ≈ 95%), two-person household
• COELO — comparison of local charges: coelo.nl
