- Svetlana, I know your move to Holland 11 years ago was connected with a job offer...
- Yes, my husband and I then worked in the Moscow office of the Dutch company TNT Express, and at some point I was offered to work in the head office of this international company.
It was not possible to leave for the first time, as our first child was due to be born, and we decided not to move. When the baby was six months old, I was offered to move again. It was stupid to refuse. The case is young, we took off and went, however, before that we had six months full of torment waiting for us to process various pieces of paper and go through the formalities required to leave Russia for Holland. Yes, it was the Russian side that created difficulties for us. As for the Dutch, they have a lot of requirements, but everything is clear and according to the rules.
- Were there any problems with mastering in a new place: language or bureaucratic difficulties?
- They got used to it extremely easily. My company helped a lot when moving, consultants were hired who prepared everything for us - registrations, documents, taxes, search for rental housing, a home and dentist, a kindergarten and even a football club for my husband. Everyone speaks English, it was easy in this regard (with the exception of all official letters, colleagues/ neighbors translated here).
The neighbors are wonderful, all with children, all help each other. Historically, their neighbors are valued on the same level as their friends. And we were lucky with people on our street, of course, this does not always happen.
I learned Dutch a long time ago, my husband continues to speak English. There is bureaucracy, but everything works clearly and according to the rules. After the Russian bureaucracy, all these are flowers. And most importantly, this bureaucracy is friendly to the extreme. People don't like to annoy people here, because the people decide everything in the elections. And in general, Holland is a well-maintained, well-groomed and very comfortable country to live in.
- That is, you rented a house for the first time, and then decided to buy, why?
- It is extremely expensive for a foreigner to rent a house in Holland. This is due to the fact that citizens of the country rent housing at preferential rates from housing corporations (you stand in line from an early youth, then you get and live at least all your life for three kopecks). And foreigners do not have such an opportunity, so they rent houses and apartments in the private sector.
So for the first two years, in accordance with the terms of the contract, the company paid most of the rent, and it was acceptable. When the benefit began to come to an end, we decided to buy the same house, because mortgage payments are three times cheaper than rent.
- And under what conditions could you take out a mortgage?
- We were given a loan for 100% of the cost of the house, that is, we didn't need our savings. Although, to get it, I had to work hard. In general, a mortgage on adequate terms is not issued to foreigners without a permanent residence permit in the Netherlands. However, at that moment my husband and I had good permanent contracts, and the banks were happy to turn a blind eye to these rules. Although in the usual opportunistic manner of banks, of course, they tried to give completely indigestible conditions. We had to pickle them and push them with our foreheads until good (I would just say excellent) conditions were offered by one of the banks. And as soon as this mortgage issue was resolved (it took two weeks), everything worked out.
- How is the procedure for selecting and buying a house?
- The broker, on the advice of foreign colleagues who went through the purchase, was not even hired. We went to the ad to see the house, it was in terrible condition. The broker who showed the house said that he had a beautiful house that had just arrived yesterday. We went and looked at it and we liked it.
In small Dutch towns, everything is built on the same principle: rows of houses, grass fields for games and playgrounds. A quiet place, away from the roads, the Windows overlook the street on one side, on the other the garden, playground and a small park behind it. Near the town center and the railway station. 15-20 minutes to Amsterdam and 25 minutes to the sea, close to work (that is, it was not necessary to leave early in order to pick up the child from kindergarten on time). In general, our house was not the cheapest. Everything is very expensive here, even repairs are much more expensive to do than in Moscow.
- How did the deal go?
- The transaction was very simple - a preliminary agreement with a broker, three days of reflection with the possibility of termination, then a contract with a bank, then to a notary, signature and keys. The bank transfers all the money to the notary. He keeps his commission, transfers the tax from the purchase to the state (it cost us 4% of the cost of housing), and sends the rest to the seller.
Then every month the bank simply withdraws the required amount. After five years (at first, when we didn't really understand anything, we signed up for a fixed payment for five years) I re-signed the contract with the bank and changed the mortgage form to a more profitable one. It was necessary, however, to pay something, but the amount was not criminal, and the interest rate was seriously reduced.
- Were there any additional expenses?
- The notary I have already mentioned. Notaries work directly with banks and the cadastre, it is unrealistic to make a mistake here with the registration of real estate, everything is very regulated. The cost of notary services and purchase tax used to be 6% of the value of the house. That is, in order to fight it off, you need to live in a house for five years. As the market began to bend after the crisis, they reduced it to 2% (another 2% tax) in order to increase the mobility of the population. Temporarily or not, I don't know.
- You said that repairs are very expensive in Holland, how much did you have to spend?
- We haven't been doing the interior ourselves for several years, as we considered the house as temporary housing. They began to repair themselves only when they realized that the housing was very permanent. We don't do anything on our own - we don't know how, and if we do something, then everything somehow goes sideways. Therefore, we hire workers, most often Dutch, since the quality is excellent and everything is done turnkey. And there is not much need to control, they even sweep up after themselves when they leave.
As a result, it costs at least 10 thousand euros to repair a bathroom (tiny), on average, 15 thousand euros. Kitchen (furniture itself) from 15 thousand euros and so on. This is if modestly. For 3-4 thousand euros, you can't even buy a kitchen in IKEA. This is probably due to the fact that money is borrowed for repairs (with a mortgage, mostly). It's not so pitiful to give away. They rarely pay out of savings.
- Can a Russian come and buy an apartment in Holland at any time, as he wants?
- If there is money, I think it can. But the country is extremely closed, everything requires an official residence status (a residence permit, preferably a normal format), and it's just so unrealistic to get it.
Non-EU residents must first find a job, then the employer must want to go through all the bureaucratic circles of hell and prove that there are no such specialists in the Netherlands, and they must be brought from abroad.
You can still get married / marry a Dutch citizen, but even then you will be allowed into the country in two years, when you pass the Dutch exam in your homeland.
- As far as I understand, you live in the house permanently. And if you decide to rent it out – will there be any difficulties?
- It is impossible to rent just like that, without the permission of the bank - mortgages are given on different conditions, depending on plans to live or rent the purchased object. This is fixed in the contract with the bank, so it is impossible to rent a house bought for yourself without permission. It is possible to get a permit, but as I have heard it is difficult, and good reasons are needed (such as the owner's departure abroad). The rented house loses in value, its liquidity decreases and the risk for the bank increases. After all, wear and tear, plus the rights of the employer (the rights of the employer are protected and he cannot simply be put out the door, even if a buyer has appeared).
- Is there any desire to leave for another country? And if there is, why?
- We can't leave for family reasons, but I would live in a place with more sun and less rain. The weather here is still depressing most of the year. But Amsterdam itself is a wonderful city, we go on occasion, as there are two children and little time. There are no such terrible traffic jams as in Moscow, public transport is wonderful.
- Next time, if you decide to buy a house, will you somehow approach the choice of a house differently?
- We still love the place and the house where we live, but if we were buying now, we would approach the matter more globally and carefully. We did everything very quickly and practically did not bargain. The difference of 5-10 thousand euros simply did not seem important - 20 extra euros a month for a mortgage did not make the weather, and we liked the house. As a result, we paid as much as we asked for, but we are very much in this waywe saved on rent.
Next time (if we buy a house) – we will take it more seriously and I will certainly bargain harder (it's not for nothing that I've been doing pricing all my life).
And we would also buy with an estimate for the future. More and without repair, so that you can do everything for yourself from start to finish.
Dmitry Chernov talked
Photos provided by Svetlana Belinskaya
Source: RealEstate.ru
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