Marian (67) rents out a room in Oud-Zuid

In the J.J. Viottastraat, somewhere between the Vondelpark and the Concertgebouw, lives Marian. She is 67, was married to Henk (a psychiatrist who died suddenly of a heart attack in 2018), has two grown children living in Utrecht and Berlin, and since 2022 a hospita tenant. We talked about the room shortage, about what changed when Henk fell away, and about what it is like to "have someone walking around on the first floor again."

The townhouse that became too big

"We bought this house in 1989. Back then prices in Oud-Zuid were still doable, at least if you had two incomes and no children. Henk worked at the AMC, I taught at a primary school in Buitenveldert. We were just a touch too spacious for two people, but we knew we wanted children. Two years later our eldest arrived."

Marian lives in a typical Oud-Zuid townhouse: a stepped gable, high ceilings, three floors, a garden four by eight. In his last years Henk worked from home more and more, in the small front room on the first floor. His old desk is still there. The spare room next to it was used for the grandchildren, for Marian's sister from Friesland who sometimes came for a week, and for Henk's occasional visiting colleagues from abroad.

"When Henk died, in October 2018, everything stopped. My sister came more often, yes, but otherwise this house suddenly became enormous. I used the ground floor and the second floor where my bedroom is. That whole first floor, with Henk's old study and the spare room, I closed off. Sometimes I would not go in for weeks."

Why the idea to rent out came up

The idea of becoming a hospita did not come naturally. "It was my daughter who suggested it. She lives with her husband in Utrecht, and they had friends whose son had to study in Amsterdam but could not find a room. She asked if I did not have one lying around. I said: no, I have a whole floor lying around."

She started gathering information. The Tax Office website. A conversation with her accountant (who said: go for it). A round of calls with the bank, ABN, to check that it was allowed. "They really only asked three questions: do you live there yourself, do you keep it limited to lodging, and will it stay within the room rental tax exemption. Three times yes. Then I got written approval."

What convinced her was the trial period. "Nine months. If it really does not click, I can simply say: thank you, it was nice, but it does not work for me. That sounded fair. I thought: I will try it once, and if it is nothing, it is nothing."

The first time: Mathijs

In February 2022 Mathijs moved in: second-year medicine, originally from Tilburg, had lost his old room in Nieuw-West after a fight with housemates. "A tall, polite boy. Not what I had imagined, actually. I thought a student would be loud, full of friends over. Mathijs was very withdrawn instead. He sat at his desk a lot, cooked with the music low, went to bed at half past ten."

What Marian had not expected: how much getting used to it was to have someone in the house again. "The first two weeks I genuinely found it scary to come out of my bedroom. What if he was standing in the hallway? What was I supposed to say then? Ridiculous, because he was just a polite boy who occasionally needed the toilet. But after so many years of living alone, that is a re-adjustment."

Gradually it became more normal. She made some house rules for herself (not official, just in her head): until half past ten in the evening he could bring friends upstairs, after that she wanted quiet. No parties. Smoking only in his own room with the window open, or in the garden. A cleaning round once every two weeks, each their own floor.

"He kept to all of it. That was the lovely thing. He had little trouble with it himself. I think he was simply happy to have a decent room within cycling distance of the Oudemanhuispoort."

What went wrong and what went right

It was not entirely flawless. "In the summer of 2022 Mathijs once went on with friends until three in the morning in the kitchen. Drunk, giggly, food on the floor, a glass knocked over. I had gone upstairs, could not sleep of course. The next morning I said something about it. He was immediately apologetic, mortified. It never happened again after that."

She learned that voicing the uncomfortable thing was actually fine. "I always thought: surely I cannot ask this? It is his life. But this is also my house. I am allowed to say what does and does not work for me. It is not rude, it is honest."

What went well: the rhythm. Marian was up early, Mathijs slept until around nine. By the time he came down for coffee, she had already had a walk through the Vondelpark. They drank a cup of coffee together at the kitchen table, sometimes ten minutes, sometimes half an hour, and then each went their own way. "I got a kind of company without it costing me anything. He was not my grandson, he was not a friend, he was a housemate. But it is a presence I had missed."

The financial side

Marian does the maths: she asks 480 euros all-in (including gas, water, electricity, internet). The room rental tax exemption in 2022 was 5,881 euros per year, in 2024 6,190 euros, in 2026 6,633 euros. "My rental income stays neatly below that. Four months of 480 euros is 1,920 euros, a full year is 5,760. That falls under the exemption, so I pay no tax on it. No declaration needed, I only have to let the Tax Office know that he lives here."

She does not use the money for groceries or the mortgage. "There is no need, I have my pension and the house is paid off. I use it for travel. I have been to Berlin twice with it to visit my son, once a week to Provence."

The Tax Office got in touch once in 2023 with a note about the registration. "A few questions, nothing scary. Whether he really lives at this address, whether we had the right form of renting. I answered it and that was that. No checks, no trouble." How the exemption works exactly is set out in our explainer on the Dutch room rental tax exemption.

After Mathijs: Lieke lives here now

Mathijs left in September 2024, he graduated and got a flat in a trainee-doctor complex in Amstelveen. Marian had nobody for a few months, and in January 2025 Lieke moved in: 22, a law master at the UvA, from Apeldoorn.

"Lieke is very different from Mathijs. Much more talkative, many more girlfriends over (but within my rules, so until half past ten), eats with me more often. Mathijs was withdrawn in a pleasant way, Lieke is sociable in a pleasant way. Both work. That surprised me, I first thought I wanted someone like Mathijs again."

What Marian learned from this hospita year is that it is less about the specific person than about how someone relates to this house and to her. "It is not in the character. It is in: does someone respect what I like? Does someone keep to what we agreed? Does that person feel at ease here or shut in? You see that in two weeks, and after that you can build on it."

The advice she gives

To other people in her situation, older people living alone with a house too big, she would want to say: try it. "It is not a lifelong decision. Nine months trial. If it is nothing, it is nothing. If it is something, you know that quickly too. I have spoken to people who spend years on the thought: should I do it? All doubts. But you only know once you simply do it."

What she should not have done: wait too long. "I had that first floor empty for three years. Three years a room stood there in which someone could have lived. I could have picked it up after the first year. It was too early in the grieving process, I understand that now, but it would not have been a year too early."

The most practical advice: arrange the paperwork properly at the start. "Bank, written approval. Not just by phone. A written rental contract with your tenant, with agreements you can simply point to ('look, it says so here'). Registration with the municipality within two weeks. Registration with the Tax Office within four weeks. It is half a day's work, but it saves you a lot of hassle later."

And finally: trust your gut at the first meeting. "I spoke with Mathijs for half an hour before we decided he would come and live here. He was the third I met. The first was too indifferent, the second too pushy, Mathijs simply felt right. I could perhaps have looked into it a bit longer, but I believe in a first impression. So far it has not let me down."

Finally

Marian's house has not been empty since 2022. On the first floor lives Lieke, on the second Marian sleeps, on the ground floor most things happen. "Three floors, two people. Still not ideal, but much better than three floors for one person. And it feels less lost. That is perhaps the most important thing I have gained: the feeling that this house serves a purpose again."

If you are in a similar situation, you will find the checklist we made for people considering becoming a hospita, with a few short questions that give you a personal list of what you need to arrange. No account needed, no longer than two minutes.

Want more practical context around hospita renting? Read our pillar on the hospita regulation or dive into our explainer on the rights of seeker and hospita. For anyone thinking about the right rent for a room in Oud-Zuid: see the rent tool for hospita rooms.

Frequently asked questions

Can a single senior sublet a room in an owner-occupied home?

Yes. As the owner of your home you are free to rent out a room under the hospita regulation. Required: register the tenant at your address with the municipality within 5 days, and declare the rental income in your income tax (box 3 subletting or, if the hospita regulation applies, exempt up to a certain amount).

What does hospita renting do to your mortgage?

At most banks, hospita renting of one room in your own home is simply allowed, provided you have your main residence there. Written permission from your bank is always wise to avoid misunderstandings. Read more in our pillar on the hospita regulation.

Do I need to adjust my buildings insurance if I have a hospita tenant?

Always report it to your insurer. With most policies the cover stays the same, sometimes a small premium adjustment is needed. Your contents insurance almost never covers your tenant's belongings, which they arrange themselves.

How old does my hospita tenant have to be?

No statutory minimum above 18. In practice many senior hospitas choose students or young starters between 18 and 30, because that fits the hospita regulation well (temporary nature, easy to terminate).

What do you do when the chemistry between tenant and hospita fades?

Start with a direct conversation about what is grating. If nothing changes, hospita contracts have a notice period of 3 months from the hospita, provided the 9-month trial period is over. Within that trial period a hospita can terminate without giving a reason.