Finishing your new-build home after the key handover

Most Dutch new builds are handed over with bare walls, and you arrange the finishing yourself. We do it in one planning: a thin skim coat where needed, renovlies on the walls, the ceilings, and the paintwork on stairs, frames and skirting boards, from €14.99 per m² excl. VAT for the walls.

For many people who move here from abroad, this comes as a surprise. You sign for a brand-new house and receive the keys to grey walls with visible seams and screw holes, a staircase that has only been primed and doors in a plain base coat. In the Netherlands that is normal. The developer delivers the shell; the finish is up to you.

Behangservice Nederland has been finishing new-build homes since 2010. Our 12 plasterers, 32 wallpaper hangers and 7 painters are all permanently employed by us, and they work across the country from our single location at Transistorstraat 7 in Almere.

What does “behangklaar” in your contract really mean?

It is one of the words in a Dutch purchase contract that causes the most misunderstandings. Behangklaar means ready for wallpaper. It does not mean ready for paint, and it does not always mean ready for renovlies either.

In practice, a wall delivered as behangklaar may still show plasterboard seams, small dents and differences in suction. Ordinary patterned wallpaper hides a lot of that. A painted finish hides almost nothing. And renovlies sits somewhere in between: it covers small irregularities but shows bigger ones once the paint goes on.

So when your contract says behangklaar, assume that some walls will need extra work before they look the way you expect. Whether they do depends on the material:

• Smooth concrete or well-finished sand-lime brick can sometimes take renovlies directly.
• Rough sand-lime brick nearly always needs a thin skim coat first.
• Plasterboard almost never goes without one.

We check this during the site visit, which is free, and tell you per wall what is needed before you see a price.

What does a new build need, in which order?

A bare new build needs four kinds of work, and the order is fixed for good reasons:

1. The base layer. Dunpleister, a thin skim coat also called filmlaag, where the wall is not yet flat. It makes the wall ready for wallpaper.
2. The walls. Renovlies or glass fleece, hung, sealed and painted. This is the layer you see and the one that absorbs the small movements of the house. Our page on wallpaper for new builds explains why it is the Dutch standard.
3. The ceilings. Painted or sprayed, or covered with renovlies if there are seams or small cracks.
4. The interior woodwork. Stairs, inside doors, door frames and skirting boards, done by our painters.

The plasterer has to finish before the wallpaper hanger starts, because fleece will not bond to a wet skim coat. The painter only lacquers the frames once nobody is sanding in that room anymore; sanding dust on wet lacquer cannot be removed.

If you hire three separate companies, you are the one coordinating them, and the one making phone calls on a Friday afternoon when somebody runs late. Because all three trades work for us, we shift that order internally. You get one quote and one phone number.

Exterior painting, such as the outside of window frames and the front door, is not part of this page. We always price that on request after seeing the situation.

What does it cost to finish a new build?

Our prices are fixed per m² or per item, taken from our price list 2026/2027, and exclude VAT. In a new build, 21% VAT applies.

A house with 160 m² of wall costs 160 × €14.99 = €2,398.40 excl. VAT for the walls, plus a one-off travel charge of €99.99. The skim coat is priced per m² from 100 m²; for smaller areas the amount follows from the quote.

There is one more figure worth knowing if you live in a new neighbourhood. When several neighbours in your street or complex have their walls done at the same time, a neighbour discount comes off per m²: €0.25 with 2 homes, €0.50 with 3, €0.60 with 4, €0.80 with 5 and €1.00 per m² with 6 or more. New-build streets are where this happens most, because everyone gets their keys in the same few weeks and every house is empty at the same moment. If your neighbourhood has a WhatsApp group, that is usually where it starts.

Ceilings deserve a separate look. In many new builds the ceiling is made of concrete slabs with visible joints, sometimes with a sprayed texture on top. Painting it is the simplest option. If the joints show or small cracks appear, renovlies on the ceiling is possible too, at €27.49 per m² including one coat of white. We tell you during the site visit which of the two your ceilings need.

Not sure how much wall area your house has? Most people underestimate it. A typical floor plan does not show wall surfaces, only floor surfaces, and stairwells add more than you expect. Send your floor plan along with your request and we calculate it for you, so the quote is based on your actual house and not on a guess.

When should you plan the work around your handover?

Earlier than most people think. Your quote stays valid for a year, so you can request it as soon as you have a floor plan, months before the keys. Send the plan with your request and we calculate the whole house.

The work itself has to happen before you move in. Our teams only start in an empty home: when the whole house is done or plastering is involved, the whole house is empty. Electricity and water have to be connected. Socket covers, lamps and radiators are removed beforehand, and we work up to 3.5 metres; in a void or tall stairwell above that height, you hire scaffolding yourself.

Our teams aim to start between 07:00 and 10:00. Agreements become binding once they are confirmed by e-mail, so the planning, the price and the start date are always in writing.

Does a new build really need all this straight away?

This is the honest objection, and a fair one. Some buyers would rather live in the house for a year, wait for it to settle, and only then decide on the finish. That can work. But the house will be full by then, and finishing occupied rooms means moving furniture, covering floors and working room by room, which costs more per m² because the work comes in smaller pieces. It also means living with bare walls in the meantime.

Renovlies removes most of the reason to wait: it was chosen precisely because it copes with the settling of the first years. What we would advise against is the opposite route of having hard painted plaster applied straight away, then repairing the cracks that appear. When a skim coat is needed first, our own plasterers apply it in the same planning, and our page on hiring a wallpaper hanger explains the Dutch terms you will find in the quote.