Is a garden home immovable or movable property?
That does not depend on the model but on how it stands on your plot. A building is immovable if it is permanently attached to the land, and that is judged by what is visible from outside: the foundation, the utility connections and whether, by its nature and design, it is meant to stay in place. The answer determines who owns it, what the municipality does with it and whether you can take it with you.
That does not depend on the model you choose but on how the home will stand on your plot. The same home can remain movable property on one plot and become immovable property on another.
The law puts it briefly: immovable property (onroerend goed) is the land, and everything permanently attached to it. Everything else is movable property (roerend goed). With a garden home (mantelzorgwoning), the word that matters is therefore permanently, and that is less self-evident than it sounds.
What the courts look at
The Hoge Raad (the Supreme Court of the Netherlands) worked this out in a case about a portacabin that stood on a foundation secured with a single bolt. The outcome was that such a building could indeed be immovable, and the test that followed from it has been used ever since.
- Is the building, by its nature and design, intended to stay in place permanently? A home with a kitchen, a bathroom and fixed installations is more likely to be so than an office unit on wheels.
- Is that intention recognisable from outside? It is not about what you planned but about what an outsider can see.
- How is it connected to the land? A concrete foundation, connected pipes, a patio laid around it and planting designed to go with it all point to permanence.
- Technical relocatability carries less weight than you think. The fact that a building can be removed with a crane does not automatically make it movable. Virtually any building can be moved with enough equipment.
That last point surprises people the most. "It can be moved, so it is movable" is not valid reasoning. It is one circumstance among others.
Why it matters
| Subject | If it is immovable | If it remains movable |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Through accession (natrekking) it becomes part of the plot: the landowner is the owner, even if someone else paid | The owner is whoever bought it |
| Taking it with you when you move | Only with the cooperation of the owner of the land | You take it with you as you would a caravan |
| Selling your house | It is part of what is transferred unless agreed otherwise | It is a separate item that can be sold on its own |
| Insurance | Buildings insurance (opstalverzekering) | Often insurance for the object itself (objectverzekering) |
| Transfer | Through the civil-law notary, with registration in the Kadaster (the Dutch Land Registry) | No formalities, handing it over is enough |
The pitfall: accession
That first row is where things really go wrong in families. If the home becomes immovable, your plot absorbs it through accession (natrekking): it legally becomes part of your land. That happens automatically, without a deed and without anyone having to do anything.
Suppose your mother pays for the home and it stands in your garden. If it becomes immovable, you are its owner. She has spent a hundred thousand euros on something that legally belongs to you. As long as everyone gets on well, nobody notices. In a divorce, a bankruptcy, a sale or an inheritance, everyone notices at the same time.
The solution exists and is not complicated: a right of superficies (recht van opstal). This is a property right that breaks the accession, so the holder of the right remains the owner of the building on someone else's land. It is established by the civil-law notary and registered in the Kadaster.
If the occupant pays for the home, have a right of superficies established. Expect a few hundred euros in notary fees on an investment of tens of thousands, and a conversation you have once now instead of later with everyone at the same time.
What the municipality does with it
For the WOZ (the official property valuation used for local taxes), the municipality looks at the actual situation on the plot, not at what you call the home. If there is a residential facility that is permanently in place, it can be included in the valuation, and the municipal property tax (onroerendezaakbelasting) follows from that. How that assessment works is explained in the page about the WOZ value.
Note that this is a separate track. The municipality can include a home in the WOZ while you have arranged a right of superficies with the notary; the two concern different questions. And the permit question is entirely separate again: whether building is allowed is a matter for the omgevingsplan (zoning plan) and not for property law.
What keeps it movable, and what does not
If you want the home to remain movable, for example because your house stands on leasehold land (erfpacht) or because you want to take it with you later, these are the choices that count.
- A removable foundation. Loose concrete pad footings or Stelcon slabs that can be taken out, instead of a poured, reinforced slab.
- Utility connections that can be disconnected, with shut-off valves and couplings in an accessible place.
- No structural connection to your house. A canopy that joins both buildings works against you.
- Holding back on wrapping the home in paving, low walls and planting that is only there for it.
- Recording what the intention is, in the purchase contract and possibly in an agreement with the landowner. That is not conclusive evidence, but it is part of the overall picture.
What does not keep it movable, however, is a sentence in a contract stating that the home is movable. The parties cannot choose that classification themselves; the court looks at the facts. If you want certainty about ownership, use a right of superficies and not a label.
With leasehold, it is more sensitive
If your house stands on leasehold land (erfpacht), this is not a theoretical question. When a leasehold ends, the buildings in principle pass to the owner of the land, in return for compensation set out in the deed. If the garden home remains movable, it falls outside that and you simply take it with you.
Discuss this in advance with the landowner granting the leasehold and put it in writing, because afterwards it becomes a dispute in which you have to provide the evidence. More on this in leasehold and garden homes.
If you rent the home
Then this whole question does not apply to you. The home remains the property of the landlord, you pay for its use, and at the end it is taken away. There is nothing to be absorbed through accession and no right of superficies is needed.
That is one of the reasons why renting is often the simpler route on leasehold land or when it is uncertain how long the care will last. What renting costs with us is set out in what a garden home costs.
The short version
If you buy the home yourself and it stands in your own garden, the question mainly matters for your insurance and for a possible move. If someone else pays for it, it is the most important legal question of the whole project: arrange a right of superficies, or consciously accept that the building becomes the landowner's.
If you do not yet know whether building is allowed at your address at all, start there: do the permit check for your address. Only arrange ownership once it is certain that the plan can go ahead.
Sources
- [Act] Burgerlijk Wetboek Boek 3, art. 3:3, immovable property is the land and everything permanently attached to it, consulted 20 August 2026
- [Act] Burgerlijk Wetboek Boek 5, art. 5:20 (accession) and title 8 (right of superficies, art. 5:101 ff.), consulted 20 August 2026
- [Ruling] Hoge Raad 31 October 1997 (Portacabin), ECLI:NL:HR:1997:ZC2478, test for permanent attachment to the land, consulted 20 August 2026
- [Act] Wet waardering onroerende zaken, defining the property and valuation, consulted 20 August 2026
Curious what is allowed in your own garden?
The rules differ from one municipality to the next. Our free permit check looks up the rules that apply to your address. It takes two minutes and there is no obligation.
