A landlord sits at the kitchen table with four tenancy agreements, four WOZ values and one building. The rent schedule treats each home separately. The municipality does too. A broker says the units could one day be sold to different buyers. The Kadaster record still shows one unsplit property.
For certain protected rented homes in such a building, the WOZ value may be reduced by €20,000 before the leegwaarderatio is applied. The rule connects tax valuation to the legal form of the property.
The €20,000 does not reduce the tax bill by that amount. It reduces the starting WOZ value used in the calculation. The final effect depends on the applicable ratio and the owner’s wider tax position.
The larger lesson is simpler. A rental unit can exist as a home, a tenancy and a WOZ object without being a separately transferable property right.
Four versions of one building
Property owners often carry several versions of value in their heads. There is the municipal WOZ value, the value with tenants in place, the possible vacant-sale value and the price separate apartments might fetch after a formal division.
Each figure may serve a legitimate purpose. Trouble starts when one quietly replaces another.
For longer-term residential letting with tenant protection, box 3 uses the previous year’s WOZ value adjusted through the leegwaarderatio. Annual rent generally means twelve times the bare monthly rent at the start of the year. Furniture, furnishings and included utility charges do not form part of that rent.
Bank receipts therefore need some reading. A monthly payment of €1,100 may include €120 for furniture and services. Treating the whole payment as rent puts the wrong figure into the valuation.
Transferability belongs to a different file. Apartment rights arise through a notarial deed of division, the accompanying documents and registration in the Kadaster public registers. Once completed, those apartment rights become separate cadastral objects.
A broker may see a commercially workable division. That can matter for a future plan. The registered property position determines what can be transferred today.
The tax figure follows present facts
This is less a tax opportunity than a matter of discipline. An owner needs to separate the facts of the rental business from the facts of title.
Return to the four-unit building. The landlord may have managed it for twenty years. Each tenant has a front door and contract. Maintenance is budgeted per unit. The municipality issues separate WOZ decisions. In daily operation, there are clearly four homes.
A sale, gift or inheritance raises a different question: what legal asset can move from one person to another today?
That distinction reaches beyond the €20,000 adjustment. It shapes the owner’s view of private wealth, refinancing capacity and future liquidity. Retirement planning can look very different if it assumes four apartments can be sold separately while the title still covers one building.
A sound working record brings together the latest WOZ decisions, tenancy agreements, bare-rent specifications and ownership documents. It also records whether a notarial division has been completed and registered.
That is not administrative decoration. It allows the owner, adviser, notary and tax authority to reconstruct the valuation from the same facts.
A second valuation question from 2026
From 1 January 2026, box 3 has an additional safeguard. When the value produced through the leegwaarderatio is at least 10 per cent higher than the market value in rented state on the WOZ valuation date, the rented-state market value applies.
This rule stands apart from the €20,000 reduction. The reduction affects the starting WOZ value for a qualifying home within a larger building. The 2026 rule compares the ratio-based outcome with market value in rented state.
An owner may therefore need to answer both questions. Is the dwelling part of a larger building and not separately transferable? And does the ratio-based value exceed the rented-state market value by at least 10 per cent?
Valuation evidence matters more where protected rents limit income and tenants limit sale options. A hopeful estimate of future vacant value does not describe the value of a home sold with its tenant in place. The valuation date, assumptions and tenancy position all matter.
Inheritance and gift tax use a related leegwaarderatio route, including the possible €20,000 reduction. The conditions differ from the box 3 correction. Where an heir is also the tenant or lessee, the ratio does not apply to that heir. From 2026, an unusual rent agreed between related parties can also lead to use of the WOZ value instead.
One building, one coherent story
The landlord’s four units are not merely lines on a rent schedule. They may support retirement, secure financing or pass to children. Those plans weaken when the will, tenancy arrangements, valuation assumptions and Kadaster position describe different versions of the property.
A calm review begins unit by unit. Which WOZ value applies? What is the bare rent? Does the tenant have rent protection? Can the home be transferred separately today? Has an apartment division been completed and registered? Is a tenant also an intended heir or recipient?
These questions do not promise a favourable tax result. They provide something more useful: a reliable picture of what the owner holds, what generates cash and what can legally move.
The €20,000 figure draws attention because it is concrete. Its real value lies in making the owner read the building without shortcuts. Four front doors may represent four homes. They do not automatically represent four assets ready for separate sale.
Before the next declaration, refinancing discussion or family transfer, that difference deserves a place at the kitchen table.
Need help checking property records, rent figures and tax calculations before a filing or transfer?
The data, sourcing, and analysis behind this article were conducted by Paolo Maria Pavan. AI was not used to identify sources, build the factual basis, or produce the analytical judgment contained here. AI was used only as a drafting aid. The final English text was personally reviewed, edited, and approved by Paolo Maria Pavan before publication.
References
- Standpunt verlaging WOZ-waarde als onroerende zaak uit afzonderlijk verhuurde woningen bestaat - Taxence
- Wettenbank - Current statutory test for the €20,000 reduction and box 3 market-value correction
- Belastingdienst - Box 3 valuation of a protected rented dwelling
- Belastingdienst - Inheritance and gift tax treatment of rented dwellings
- Kadaster - What a completed apartment-right split changes
- Rijksoverheid - Leegwaarderatio after its 2023 revision
- Belastingdienst - Box 3 actual-return regime and record pressure
