What is a kangoeroewoning (kangaroo home)?

A kangoeroewoning (literally a kangaroo home) is one building with two independent living spaces, usually with an internal connection between the two parts. Parent and child live under the same roof, each with their own front door, kitchen and bathroom. The name comes from the pouch: one home sits inside the other.

That is something different from a garden home (mantelzorgwoning). A garden home stands as a separate building in the garden of an existing house. The difference sounds technical, but it determines whether you have to move or not, and that is usually the whole decision.

The difference at a glance

What the municipality thinks of it

In planning terms, a kangoeroewoning is usually seen as one main building with several residential units. Whether that is allowed depends on the omgevingsplan (zoning plan) of your municipality (gemeente, your local council). Some municipalities regard it as one home, others as a split into two homes, and the latter may require an environmental permit (omgevingsvergunning) under article 5.1 of the Omgevingswet (Environment and Planning Act).

With a garden home the situation is different. It counts as an ancillary building and, under certain conditions, may stand permit-free in the back garden. On the other hand, the independent use is linked to a genuine care relationship as described in the Wet maatschappelijke ondersteuning (Social Support Act, Wmo). If the care stops, the basis for that use generally lapses.

Both types of home must meet the requirements for residential use in the Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving (the Dutch building regulations): fire safety, ventilation, daylight and energy performance. On that point there is no difference.

Why you see few of them for sale

On Funda (the main Dutch property website) and the other housing sites there is no separate category for kangoeroewoningen. If you are looking for one, you have to search the descriptions for phrases such as "geschikt voor dubbele bewoning" (suitable for dual occupancy), "met inwoonmogelijkheid" (with an option for someone to live in) or "twee-onder-een-kap in één" (a semi-detached pair in one). The supply is limited and scattered, and that explains why a search for a kangoeroewoning for sale often turns up little.

Building or converting one yourself is possible. You then buy a house that is large enough to split, or you build a new one with two units. Expect a permit process, a conversation with the municipality about the split, and a move for both parties.

What such a home looks like in practice

Most kangoeroewoningen are the result of a conversion rather than new construction. A spacious semi-detached house or a farmhouse is adapted so that two independent parts are created, each with its own kitchen, bathroom and toilet. Often a door remains between the two parts, sometimes lockable from both sides.

Independent means something more precise here than it sounds. A living space only counts as independent when it has its own entrance and the occupant does not have to share the essential facilities. That is also what the municipality assesses when deciding whether there is a split. An extension with a kitchenette and a door to the neighbours' hallway is therefore not independent.

In practice you run into things that look small on a drawing. Two households under one roof usually means two meter cupboards or a divided utility connection, applying to the municipality for a second house number, and thinking about noise between the two parts. That last point is underestimated: the separating wall between two homes should meet stricter requirements than an internal wall, and in a conversion that is rarely the case automatically.

Who owns the house

With a garden home that question is simple. The main house is yours, you buy the garden home in addition and it stands on your land. With a kangoeroewoning it becomes more complicated, because two parties live in one property as registered in the Land Registry (kadaster).

That can be arranged in several ways and the details matter: joint ownership divided into shares, one of the parties as owner with the other as occupant, or division into apartment rights. Each of those routes has its own consequences for the mortgage, for what happens on death and for inheritance tax if there are more children.

This is above all the part for which you need a civil-law notary (notaris), and before anything is signed. In our own practice we see that the question "and what about my brother later on" comes up late, while it can change the whole set-up. For the garden home version we have set this out in the role of the notary and inheritance tax and garden homes.

When a kangoeroewoning suits you and when it does not

A kangoeroewoning is the better choice if the care is long-term or permanent, if both parties wanted to move anyway, and if you see living together as the end situation. It is one home, so one mortgage and one plot, and that often makes the financing simpler.

A garden home suits you better if you want to stay in your current home, if the care situation may change, or if you want to keep it reversible. The home stands in your own garden, you do not have to sell anything, and if the care stops the home can be removed. With us, you can then also sell it back.

The practical trade-off usually comes down to whether you want to move. A kangoeroewoning requires that of everyone; a garden home of no one.

What happens if the situation changes

This is the difference people weigh least beforehand and feel most afterwards. A care situation rarely lasts as long as expected, and sometimes much longer.

With a kangoeroewoning nothing changes structurally if the care stops or if the occupant dies. The building stays as it is. What does change is the question of what you do with the empty part: use it yourself, rent it out or sell it. Renting out part of your own home comes with its own rules, and selling is only possible if the ownership arrangement allows it. For a home bought as one property, in practice that means selling it as a whole.

With a garden home it is the other way round. The independent use is linked to the informal care relationship, so when that ends the basis for that use generally lapses and the situation has to be reversed, unless the municipality decides otherwise. That sounds like a disadvantage and is often an advantage: the home can literally be removed. We buy back our own homes, refurbish them and offer them again through our second-hand range. Your garden is then your garden again and you get money back.

What exactly happens after a death we have described separately in what happens to the garden home after the occupant dies.

And the tax authorities

A kangoeroewoning is one home with two residential units, and then the question arises whether the second part is an independent home for tax purposes. That affects the owner-occupied home rules (eigenwoningregeling), mortgage interest relief and possibly transfer tax. This depends too much on the situation to answer in general terms here, and it also varies from case to case; put it to your tax adviser or the Belastingdienst (the Dutch Tax Administration) itself.

For a garden home we have worked out the tax side separately: read whether the costs are deductible and what it does to the WOZ value (the official valuation of your property).

Where the term comes from

The name is a loanword from Belgium, where kangaroo living has long been a familiar way of living. The image fits: the young one sits in its mother's pouch, protected but with a space of its own. In the Netherlands the term has been appearing more often in recent years because people are living at home for longer and homes are scarce, and because two generations under one roof solves both at the same time.

You will also come across it as meergeneratiewoning (multi-generation home), duowoning or inwoonwoning. These words mean roughly the same thing and estate agents use them interchangeably. If you are looking for properties, include all of them.

Three situations from practice

A mother of 84 who is becoming unsteady on her feet. She lives alone in a terraced house with stairs. Her daughter lives twenty minutes away in a house with a deep garden. Here the garden option is almost always the shortest route: nobody has to move, the home can be in place in one day, and if the situation changes it can be removed again.

A couple in their early seventies who want to downsize. They are healthy, want to leave their large house and are thinking ahead. Here a kangoeroewoning may actually be a better fit. There is no need for care, so the informal care route is not self-evident in planning terms, and both parties wanted to move anyway.

A son who wants to take his father in after a stroke. Here time counts. Converting a house into two independent parts takes months and requires a permit process; a garden home is in place sooner. In practice we see that this is the scenario in which people underestimate how long a conversion takes.

Considering the garden option

We do not build kangoeroewoningen. What we do offer is the separate version: a single-storey home of 36 to over 80 m² in the garden of the house you already have, installed in one day.

If you want to know whether that fits on your plot, do the permit check for your address. It retrieves the rules that apply in your municipality. Or first look at the models with their floor plans to get a feel for the dimensions.