The National Mortgage Guarantee (NHG) is a safety net in case of forced sale due to unemployment, disability or divorce. The cost limit is €470,000 (2026), or €498,200 with energy-saving measures.
Advantages: lower mortgage interest (average 0.3–0.6% discount), protection against residual debt in forced sales, and higher borrowing capacity with some banks.
Disadvantages: one-time premium of 0.4% of the mortgage amount (at €400,000 that’s €1,600), strict conditions (maximum housing costs, no second home), and the limit excludes more expensive properties.
Rule of thumb: NHG is almost always beneficial if you qualify. The premium is often recovered within 2–3 years through lower interest. Calculate the exact difference with your mortgage advisor.
The guarantee is administered by the Homeownership Guarantee Fund (Waarborgfonds Eigen Woningen, WEW), an independent foundation. In a forced sale with residual debt, the WEW assesses whether you qualify for debt forgiveness — this isn’t automatic; you need to show the sale arose through no fault of your own (job loss, disability or divorce, for example) and that you sold the home promptly at a market-conform price.
For properties with energy-saving measures, a higher cost limit of €498,200 (2026) applies instead of €470,000. This mainly matters for homes that already carry a high energy label or where sustainability upgrades are financed into the mortgage.
An important detail: the cost limit applies to the total cost of acquiring the home — purchase price plus buyer’s costs — not the purchase price alone. A €465,000 home with €20,000 in additional costs is therefore already outside the €470,000 limit. Work this through before making a bid you believe keeps you just under the threshold.
The premium is formally called borgtochtprovisie and is a one-off percentage of the mortgage amount, not of the purchase price. You pay it when the mortgage deed is executed, and you may finance it into the mortgage — where, as part of the home-acquisition debt, it counts towards interest deduction. It is not an insurance premium you see again each year; it is one-off, and you don’t get it back when you sell.
NHG is not protection against falling prices, nor a guarantee that your mortgage will be approved. The safety net applies only to a forced sale arising from one of the recognised causes. Move voluntarily, or sell at a loss because the market turned, and the residual debt remains entirely yours. That distinction is regularly left vague in sales conversations.
The conditions rule out several situations that matter to buyers in the big cities: a second home or investment property doesn’t qualify, and letting out part of your home can void the guarantee. There is also a cap on housing costs relative to income, which means NHG can sometimes let you borrow less than you could without it — the opposite of what the interest discount implies.
For a leasehold property, NHG counts the capitalised ground lease canon in its affordability test, which can reduce your maximum mortgage. If you’re buying in Amsterdam, The Hague or Utrecht, have the effect of the canon on your NHG headroom calculated explicitly before you settle on a bid.