A building survey (bouwkundige keuring) is a visual inspection by an independent surveyor covering roof, facades, window frames, floors, installations and damp, with an estimate of repair costs in the short and longer term. Cost: typically €300–€500, depending on the size of the home and whether you want a full cost estimate.
The operative word is visual. The surveyor opens nothing up, lifts no floorboards and does no digging. Whatever sits behind plaster, under the floor or below ground stays out of view. Three things therefore fall outside a standard survey: the foundation, asbestos, and the condition of pipework inside walls. Each has its own specialist investigation.
Make the survey a condition of your offer and attach a cost threshold — for example, you may withdraw if estimated repairs exceed €10,000. Without a threshold the condition is vague and invites an argument about what counts as serious enough. With one it is a clear, testable criterion that a seller can also work with.
In a tight market many buyers drop the survey to make their offer more attractive. Understandable, but weigh what you are giving up: on a €400,000 purchase the survey is well under a tenth of a percent of the price, while an undiscovered roof or a rotten floor easily costs a multiple of it. One alternative sellers often accept: survey before you bid, so your offer can be unconditional without being blind.
Attend the survey yourself if you can. A good surveyor points things out and explains what is urgent and what can wait — a distinction that rarely comes through as clearly in the written report as it does standing in the room. Ask explicitly about the remaining service life of the roof, the boiler and the window frames; those are the items that will shape your budget for the first few years.
On older properties, watch for the age clause (ouderdomsclausule) in the purchase deed. It limits the seller’s warranty on account of the building’s age, shifting the risk of defects onto you. Where that clause appears, a survey stops being optional and becomes the minimum.