The entry bill, first

Transfer tax on residential investment property was lowered to 8% per 2026 (from 10.4%) — still a serious bite at the door that the property must first earn back. Add financing costs and the honest conclusion from the €100,000 plan stands: property earns its place from a bigger base, roughly the €500,000 bracket, where one building is a position instead of a bet.

Inside the BV: real numbers

  • Rents are profit, taxed at 19%/25.8%.
  • Financing interest and maintenance deduct; depreciation runs until the book value reaches the WOZ floor for let property.
  • Losses and vacancy actually count — the regime sees your real result.
  • Held under the holding, a later sale of the property company can travel the participation-exemption route, keeping exits flexible.

Privately: box 3

The private route taxes a notional yield on the value at 36%, actual rent regardless — light in strong rental years, indifferent to your costs and vacancies in weak ones. From 2028 the planned shift to actual returns rewrites this comparison; building the flexible version now is itself a strategy — see actual returns in box 3.

The rule of thumb

Leveraged, actively managed rental property with real costs fits the BV, where every euro of reality counts. A single unleveraged unit held quietly can sit privately. And the home you live in is its own regime entirely: buying a home versus investing. The full BV-versus-private treatment, with worked numbers, lives at real estate in a BV.