RJ 213 Investment property: fair value, cost and revaluation reserve

The short answer

Property you hold for rent or appreciation is investment property (RJ 213). You value all investment property either at fair value, without depreciation, with changes in value in the profit and loss account and a revaluation reserve, or at cost less depreciation. A micro-entity may not value at market value and therefore stays with cost.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

When is property an investment?

Investment property earns rent, appreciation or both, and not the cash flows of your own business (RJ 213.105). Think of an office you let to third parties, land you hold without a fixed plan, an empty building you want to let and a building under construction that later becomes an investment (RJ 213.106). Owner-occupied property is not an investment, even if you house staff in it, nor is property you build for sale or for a client (RJ 213.107).

• Mixed use. If the parts can be sold separately, you account for them separately. If not, the whole is an investment only if the owner-occupied part is insignificant (RJ 213.108).
• Services included. Security and cleaning for tenants change nothing. If you run a hotel in the building yourself, it is owner-occupied (RJ 213.109–110).
• Within the group. If a subsidiary lets a building to its parent, it is an investment in that subsidiary's annual accounts, but owner-occupied in the consolidated annual accounts. If the parent lets the building to a subsidiary that it consolidates, it is also owner-occupied property in its own annual accounts (RJ 213.113). This affects many holding companies with an operating company.
• Doubt. If the classification is not clear-cut, you set your own criteria, apply them consistently and disclose them in the notes (RJ 213.112).

Initial measurement and the two models

You recognise investment property at its acquisition price including transaction costs: purchase price, transfer tax, notary and advice (RJ 213.301–302; RJk B2.204). After that you choose one model for all your investment property.

• Fair value. The value at the balance sheet date, without deducting selling costs (RJ 213.505–506). No depreciation is charged, and you do not form a provision for major maintenance (RJ 213.403 and 213.503). A change in value goes through the profit and loss account of that same year (RJ 213.504). Valuation by an independent expert is recommended, not required (RJ 213.502).
• Cost. You follow the cost model of RJ 212: depreciate the building, not the land, and recognise impairments (RJ 213.515). Medium-sized and large entities then still disclose the fair value (RJ 213.805).

Because there are no frequent stock-exchange quotations for property, under fair value you form a revaluation reserve for the unrealised gain. The reserve is limited to the difference from the carrying amount on a cost basis. You determine that carrying amount without depreciation, or with the depreciation you would have had under the cost model; you state which of the two (RJ 213.504; RJk B2.206).

The revaluation reserve is no higher than the difference between the carrying amount based on the acquisition or production price and the carrying amount based on the current value applied in the valuation of the assets to which the revaluation reserve relates. This reserve is reduced by the amount included in the reserve for a particular asset if that asset is disposed of. An impairment of an asset valued at current value is charged to the revaluation reserve to the extent that this asset was previously revalued upwards in favour of the revaluation reserve.

Valuation at market value is not permitted for a legal entity as referred to in article 395a of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code.

Case: a let office, two models

Pandhuys Beheer BV, a small entity, buys an office on 1 January 2025 that it lets to third parties. The purchase price is € 1.000.000; with transfer tax, notary and advice the acquisition price comes to € 1.110.000, of which € 310.000 is land and € 800.000 is building. An appraiser values the property at € 1.180.000 at the end of 2025 and at € 1.140.000 at the end of 2026. Under the cost model it would depreciate the building over forty years, € 20.000 a year.

Under fair value, Pandhuys books the 2025 gain in the result and also sets aside € 70.000 in the revaluation reserve (calculation without depreciation), charged to the free reserves. It cannot distribute that part as dividend. If it forms a deferred tax liability on the revaluation, it may reduce the reserve by that amount (art. 2:390(1) DCC). In the notes it states the sum of the revaluations and which of the two calculation methods it uses for the reserve (RJk B2.206 and B2.211).

As a micro-entity Pandhuys may use only the cost column: investment property at current value would be market value, and that is excluded for it. As a medium-sized entity using the cost model it discloses at the end of 2026 the fair value of € 1.140.000, the rental income and the direct operating costs (RJ 213.802 and 213.805).

If Pandhuys chooses the tax-based valuation principles (art. 2:396(6) DCC), the valuation follows the tax balance sheet: cost with depreciation of the building down to the fiscal floor value. A revaluation does not fit with that.

RJ 213 per size class

Changing use

You reclassify property only when its use actually changes, such as the start of owner-occupation, the start of redevelopment for sale, the end of owner-occupation or a new lease with a third party. A plan by the board alone is not enough (RJ 213.601). If you sell an investment without redevelopment, it remains an investment until the sale (RJ 213.602).

Under fair value, the value at the time of the change is the new cost on a transfer to owner-occupation or inventory (RJ 213.604). If an owner-occupied building becomes an investment at fair value, you simply depreciate up to that date and treat the difference from fair value as a revaluation under RJ 212 (RJ 213.605–606).

What changes per financial year

For 2025 RJ 213 (amended 2024) applied, for 2026 and 2027 RJ 213 (amended 2025). The difference is only a transitional provision from 2015 that was no longer needed (RJ 213.902, RJ-Uiting 2025-3A); whoever applied it may continue the treatment that resulted. In RJk B2.2 paragraph B2.212a lapsed from 2026; it repeated the disclosure of the sum of the revaluations, which B2.211 already contained, so the content has remained the same.

Common mistakes

• Depreciating investment property that is carried at fair value.
• Forming a maintenance provision even though you use fair value.
• Distributing the gain from a revaluation without a revaluation reserve.
• Putting an appraised value above cost on the balance sheet as a micro-entity.
• Automatically classifying the holding company's building used by the operating company as an investment.

How it works at Jaarrekening.io

The app asks which basis you use for investment property, current value or cost less depreciation. If a small entity has a revaluation reserve, the app asks for and checks its movement, the only statement of changes in equity that a small entity must give (art. 2:396(5) DCC). The appraisal itself and the choice of a model remain your decision.

Sources

• Art. 2:390 DCC: revaluation reserve (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:384 DCC: valuation principles
• Dutch Current Value Decree, art. 5a and 11 (wetten.overheid.nl)
• RJ-Uiting 2025-3A: lapsed transitional provision RJ 213.902 (rjnet.nl)
• Dutch Accounting Standards (Richtlijnen voor de jaarverslaggeving) (rjnet.nl)

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