Cost of living in Netherlands

Sent by Noelkim in Apr 2008

Amstelveen, bedtown of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Accommodation: 2,000 eur per month for a 120 sqm fully furnished semi-detached house, including gas and electricity but excluding waternet bill which is some kind of sewage tax you have to pay for living in the low-land.

Food prices: 200~250 per week for four of us.

Internet: for a internet + tv contract, 74 euro per month.

Food in traditional restaurant: You pay 15 ~ 20 euros per dish at a plain chinese restaurant.

Taxi ride : Once we called a taxi to the airport which is only 3~4 km away and paid 40 euros.

Education: Free for local school but international schools are expensive. ISA 17,000 per year, British 13,000 p/y, and the cheapest one where I send my kids costs 400 euro per month, of course per kid.

Gas: 1.55 Euro for gasoline(benzine) and 1.35 for the diesel

Car maintanence fees: I paid 900 euro for exchanging a door lock. and 750 euro for the scratch of front right panel.

Buying a car: There's a special road tax on vehicles, BPM or something, which makes the car price maybe the most expensive in the world. Check the website www.autotrack.nl for used car prices.


Life in the Netherlands is not as fancy as I expected at the beginning because of,
cost of living being too high for a single earning family,
people are nice and possess good level of english but also force you to speak Dutch and will not emotionally accept you till you speak dutch,
depressing weather for the half of a year.

Living in the Netherlands can be fairly expensive. As a dutch student, one receives many benefits such as a free travel card for public transport, and a study grant from the government, but not counting these, things are pricy.

accommodation prices
I myself, living in student flat, paying around 270 euro's per month. This is considered quite cheap. Generally speaking though, housing is one of the more expensive things, depending on location ofcourse.

public transportation fares
Buses and trains are quite expensive. It pays off to buy a discount card for the trains if one travels more than once or twice a month. One can check prices on www.ns.nl
The discount card for trains costs around 45 euro's, but will give you 40% off for an entire year.

food prices
As a student, cooking mostly for myself, it runs me around 200 euro's per month. Cooking for more should be more economical. Supermarket prices are good.

healthcare prices
Healthcare is compulsary and comes in at around 85 euro's per month.

education prices
As a dutch student, one pays 1500 euro's in tuition per year at universities. EU students, and Non-EU students have different (higher) rates though.

prices of a beer or a coffee in a regular pub
A beer in a downtown pub will run you from 2.00 - 2.20 euro's per glass. Prices in Amsterdam might run you a little higher with most things, as typical of a capital city.


Having lived in the north of Italy (Torino), the prices are just about on par for most of everything. Public transport is a fair bit cheaper in Italy, but you make up for it on other costs, which are lower in The Netherlands.

what cities are the international school located? i am thinking of moving to Breda. I have a 4 year old.

http://www.sio.nl/

thanks for the link for the schools. does anyone have any advice for schooling an american child age 4, may be age 5-6 by the time of the move, who doesn't speak dutch? is it better to put an english speaking child in an international school, or do they do just fine in a dutch school? my child picks up language well as i guess most children do, she knows very little russian and spanish. i try and teach her dutch words here and there as i pick them up.

any advice would be so gladly appreciated! : )

thank you!

The thread is quite helpful.... Current situation for the cost of living? is it comparable to all the cities in NL? How about Utrecht?

Hello kmorros,

We are considering moving to Netherlands as well. We have 2 x kids (4yrs & 2yrs) and wondering whether we should send them to a local school or an international school.

They can only speak English.

How did it work out for you?

Thank you, any advice is appreciated.