Second-hand garden home for sale · where and what to check

Yes, second-hand garden homes (mantelzorgwoningen) are sold, but the market is small and largely invisible. If you search classified ad sites you will rarely find anything, and that is not because there is no supply. It is because used homes almost always go back to the company that installed them.

That is our route too. We buy back our own homes when the care ends, refurbish them and offer them again through our second-hand range. The home you then buy has a known history, and with a used home that matters more than with a used car.

Why so little supply is visible

A garden home rarely changes owner on the open market, for three reasons that reinforce each other.

The buy-back agreement. Many suppliers, including us, buy back their own homes. For the owner that is the simplest way out, so the home never reaches the open market.
Rental contracts. Some of the homes in the Netherlands are there on a rental basis. They never belonged to the occupant and go back into stock afterwards.
The logistics. Selling a home to a stranger means arranging dismantling, transport and a crane. Most families who have just come to the end of a period of care do not feel like doing that, and understandably so.

Where you can find them

There are four routes, and they differ greatly in how much you have to arrange yourself.

Route	What you get	What you do yourself
A builder's buy-back stock	Refurbished home with a known history, often with a guarantee	Little; installation is handled by the builder
Rental company phasing out units	Home from the rental fleet, technically sound but basic	Foundation, utility connections, sometimes transport
Private seller after the care has ended	The lowest price, no guarantee	Everything, including dismantling and the crane
Sale of care or site units	Units that were not designed as homes	Converting to residential use, with all the requirements that come with it

That last route is the pitfall. A unit built as an office or site cabin is not a home and usually does not meet the requirements for residential use on insulation, ventilation and fire safety. Converting it almost always costs more than the difference in purchase price.

What a second-hand home really saves

On the purchase price it saves a considerable amount, and that is the part people see. What people do not see is that a large part of the costs does not change with the age of the home at all.

Transport costs the same, whether the home is two or twelve years old. The foundation is the same work. The utility connections for water, electricity and sewerage involve the same digging, and those costs rise in step with the distance to your meter cupboard. With a used home there are items on top that do not arise with a new one: dismantling at the old location, an inspection of the installations and repairing whatever shifts during the move.

So do not calculate with the difference in asking price but with the difference in the final amount. A new Kievit of 46.1 m² costs from €122,900 including VAT with us, and the foundation and utility connections come on top of that. Put the asking price of a used home next to it plus transport, dismantling, inspection and repairs, and only then will you know what you save. In what a garden home costs you can read what is and is not included in the price of a new home.

Eight points to check before you buy

If you are buying from a private seller or from a dealer without a buy-back history, go through this list. The points are in order of what is most expensive when it goes wrong.

Year of construction and insulation value. The requirements have been tightened considerably over the past fifteen years. An older unit rarely meets the current standard, and you notice that on your energy bill every winter.
Was the home designed for residential use under the Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving (the Dutch building regulations), or as something else. Ask for the documentation from the original builder.
Can it be dismantled and has it been moved before. Every move puts some strain on the structure, the joints and the sealant. Ask how often and how long ago.
The condition of the roof, joints and floor. With relocatable homes, leaks are almost always at the connections, not in the middle of the roof.
The installations. Have the electrics and the central heating system checked before you buy, not after the home is in your garden.
The transport dimensions. Width and height determine whether the home can be transported in one piece and which crane is needed. That is a substantial cost item, and it depends on your street, not on the home.
With older units, materials from the time of construction. For homes built before the asbestos ban, an inspection is no unnecessary luxury.
Paperwork and ownership. Who is the owner, is there still finance secured on it, and which guarantee transfers with it.

How to recognise a reliable supplier

There is no national register of approved suppliers and no quality mark that covers the whole sector, so you have to judge for yourself. In practice, four things tell you the most.

Does the supplier know the home's history. Anyone who can tell you where it stood, for how long and what has been done to it, either built it or bought it back. Anyone who does not know is a reseller.
What is on paper. Ask for the specifications of the original construction, the meter readings of the installations and a list of what has been replaced.
Which guarantee comes with it and on which parts. With a refurbished home, a guarantee on the structure and installations is usual; with a private purchase you get nothing.
Who installs it. A supplier that arranges transport, crane and connection takes on the risk that would otherwise lie with you.

Also ask whether you can view an installed home of the same type. Half an hour in a home that is already in place tells you more about space, sound and finish than ten photos.

Reinstalling is legally a new building

This is the point most often overlooked. The fact that a home stood legally somewhere else says nothing about your plot. Every installation is assessed again: against the omgevingsplan (zoning plan) of your municipality (gemeente, your local council), against the space in your back garden area and against the building regulations that apply now.

A home that was allowed to stand permit-free ten years ago may need a permit at your address. So do the permit check for your address before you buy a used home, not afterwards. The rules that apply in general are set out in do I need a permit.

A second-hand home of 100 m²

People search for that size, and there is virtually no supply. There is a planning reason for that. What may stand permit-free in a back garden is tied to a maximum floor area and to a percentage of your plot that may be built on. In an average garden you reach that limit well before you get to 100 m², so homes like that have rarely been built and therefore rarely become available second-hand.

If you are looking for that size because two people need to live in it with a guest room, our most spacious home of 51.1 m² is often the realistic alternative. If you have a large plot, a custom design is possible, but do the check first.

How it works with us

We buy back our own homes when the care ends. The home goes to our production facility, where we inspect it, repair it and finish it again. After that it goes into our range, with the year of construction and its history stated. So you are not buying an unknown unit but a home of which we know where it stood and what has been done to it.

If one of our homes is in your garden and is no longer needed, register it via our buy-back page. What a home is still worth after years of use is explained in how much residual value a garden home has.

Second-hand, new or rented

Second-hand is the cheapest route if there is supply that suits your garden and your care needs, and if you can wait until there is. New is the most certain route and the fastest if you know when you will need the home. Renting is the route for anyone who does not have the full amount available at once or does not know how long the care will last; with us it starts at around €1,100 per month.

The order stays the same in all three cases. First the permit check, then measure your garden, and only then choose. After that, feel free to look at the models with their floor plans, even if you are looking for second-hand, because the range consists of the same homes.

Sources

[Decree] Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving (Bbl), requirements for residential use and permit-free ancillary buildings, consulted 20 August 2026
[Act] Omgevingswet, art. 5.1, every building activity is assessed again, consulted 20 August 2026
[Act] Burgerlijk Wetboek Boek 7, purchase of movable property and what you may expect, consulted 20 August 2026
[Guidance] Informatiepunt Leefomgeving, garden homes and permit-free building, consulted 20 August 2026

Are there second-hand garden homes for sale?