Parking permits in The Hague, zone by zone

A first resident’s parking permit in The Hague costs 99.20 euro a year.

A second one for the same address costs 346.65 euro, and a third costs 693.25 euro.

There is a 17.70 euro charge for handling the application on top of that, payable whether or not you get what you asked for.

That escalation is deliberate policy, not a price list.

The gemeente is willing to let a household park one car cheaply and is actively discouraging the second and third, and in the busiest zones it will not sell you the second one at all until somebody else gives theirs up.

Who qualifies

Two conditions, both checked.

You must live and be registered at the address you are applying for, which means your inschrijving at the gemeente has to be done first and has to be at that exact address.

And you must own a car or a brommobiel.

A company car or a lease car needs paperwork showing it is at your disposal.

The ceiling is three resident permits per address, whatever the size of the household or the building.

The waiting list, which is the part nobody mentions

Where measured parking pressure in a zone runs above 90%, the gemeente caps the number of second and third resident permits it will issue.

Applications beyond the cap go on a waiting list, ordered by the date the application was registered, and applications for a second permit take priority over applications for a third.

You can join the list without naming a number plate, which means you can get in the queue before you buy the car.

That is the single most useful thing in the whole regulation and almost nobody does it.

Once a permit is allocated you have six months to attach it to a registration number.

Miss that and you go back on the list with a new application date twelve months later, which is a punishing reset.

And if you give up a second or third permit while staying at the same address in the same zone, you keep the right to get it back for a year.

The ceilings are recalculated annually against the current parking-space maps, so a zone that was open last year can be closed this year.

Check the published waiting time for your own zone before you assume anything, because the length varies enormously across the city.

What visitors cost you

A bezoekersvergunning is 34.10 euro a year and it buys a fixed annual allowance of discounted visitor hours, not unlimited parking.

The allowance is set per area: Centrum, Centrum-Zuid, De Venen en de Reef and Laakhaven get 332 hours, and other areas sit between 138 and 366.

When you run out, you buy more: 50 euro for 50 parking hours.

Two rules come with it, and both are enforced.

You may only use it for your own visitors, and you may not sell the hours to anyone.

Work out the annual allowance against how often people actually visit.

A household with family coming most weekends will burn 332 hours by the autumn.

A household that entertains twice a year will not come close, and the permit still pays for itself the first time someone stays a weekend.

Paying by the hour, and what changed in April 2026

Street parking rates differ by zone, and the zones are numbered rather than named after districts.

Most of the regulated city charges 2.75 euro an hour.

The busiest zones, the old centre and the Scheveningen seafront, charge 7.15 euro an hour.

The hours vary too: some zones are Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 18:00, others run every day from 09:00 to midnight.

From 1 April 2026 two new structures came in on top of that.

In parts of the Oud Centrum and Scheveningen the flat hourly rate was replaced with a progressive one, starting at 7 euro for the first 20 minutes and climbing to 50 euro for anything over 90 minutes.

The point of it is to make a short stop viable and a long one absurd.

The mirror image is the consumer parking zones, where the first two hours are 1 euro an hour and it rises to 2.75 euro after that.

Those sit around the shopping streets and are designed to do the opposite: get you in, let you shop, move you on.

The gemeente’s plattegronden en parkeerkosten page carries an interactive map with every zone, its rate and its hours.

Check your own street on it before signing a lease, because two streets apart can be two different regimes.

The coast is its own problem

Scheveningen on a warm Saturday is the hardest parking in the province, and the rates above are why.

The garages are the realistic option: APCOA at the Strand and the Kurhaus and on Nieuwe Parklaan, Interparking Boulevard, Q-Park Strandweg, plus the Zwarte Pad car park.

At Kijkduin there is the Deltaplein shopping centre garage and the surface parking on Zandvoortselaan and Machiel Vrijenhoeklaan.

Nobody who lives here drives to the beach in August.

They take tram 1, 9, 11 or 12, which is set out in the tram article, or they cycle, and the coast article covers what is at each end of the boulevard.

Park and Ride, which is genuinely cheap

The gemeente runs a ring of P+R sites and two of them are free.

P+R Mariahoeve has 232 spaces, free parking, charging points, and tram 6 into the centre in about fifteen minutes.

P+R De Uithof is also free with RandstadRail into town in around fifteen minutes.

P+R Victory Boogie Woogie has 338 spaces and comes with a day return for trams 1 and 15; HTM prices that package from 6.50 euro.

P+R Ypenburg has 222 spaces and four charging points with the train reaching Centraal in eight minutes, and Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indië has 155 spaces and a five minute train ride, both discounted if you travel on by rail.

Leidschenveen Haven has 169 spaces at day rates.

For a day in town with visitors, a free P+R plus four tram fares comes to a fraction of 7.15 euro an hour in the centre.

Where to apply and what else to check

Everything runs through denhaag.nl with DigiD, so this is another of the tasks that waits on getting DigiD working.

There are separate permits for carers, for car sharing, for a charging point on your street, and an incidental permit for the day the removal van arrives, which is worth knowing about before moving day rather than during it.

One last calculation worth doing honestly.

A first permit at 99.20 euro a year is cheap, and it will tempt you to keep a car you use twice a month.

Against that sits insurance, road tax, the apk and getting your licence converted, and a city where most journeys are faster by tram or bike.

Plenty of households here run one car instead of two and spend the difference on train tickets.

Sources

• Gemeente Den Haag, parkeervergunning voor bewoners aanvragen: 17.70 euro application charge, first permit 99.20 euro a year, second 346.65 euro, third 693.25 euro, registration at the address and ownership of a car or brommobiel required, maximum of three resident permits per address
• Gemeente Den Haag, parkeervergunning voor bezoekers aanvragen: 34.10 euro a year, annual hour allowances by area with 332 hours for Centrum, Centrum-Zuid, De Venen en de Reef and Laakhaven and 138 to 366 hours elsewhere, 50 euro for 50 extra hours, use restricted to your own visitors, resale of hours prohibited
• Regeling parkeerregulering Den Haag 2026: the permit ceiling applying in zones where parking pressure exceeds 90%, annual recalculation against the current parking-space maps, waiting list ordered by registration date, second permits taking priority over third, registration permitted without a number plate, six months to link an allocated permit to a plate before returning to the list with a date twelve months later, and one year of reinstatement rights after voluntarily giving up a permit at the same address in the same zone
• Gemeente Den Haag, plattegronden en parkeerkosten: zone rates of 2.75 euro an hour across most of the regulated city and 7.15 euro an hour in the busiest zones, enforcement windows including Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 18:00 and daily 09:00 to 24:00, the progressive tariff from 1 April 2026 in parts of the Oud Centrum and Scheveningen from 7 euro for the first 20 minutes to 50 euro beyond 90 minutes, and the consumer parking zones at 1 euro an hour for the first two hours then 2.75 euro
• Gemeente Den Haag, parkeren aan de Haagse kust: the named garages and car parks at Scheveningen and Kijkduin
• Gemeente Den Haag, slim parkeren Park + Ride: P+R Victory Boogie Woogie with 338 spaces and a day return for trams 1 and 15, P+R Mariahoeve free with 232 spaces and charging points and tram 6 in about 15 minutes, P+R Ypenburg with 222 spaces and 4 charging points and 8 minutes by train to Centraal, P+R Leidschenveen Haven with 169 spaces, P+R Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indie with 155 spaces and 5 minutes by train, P+R De Uithof free with RandstadRail in about 15 minutes, and Park and Bike Duindigt with 347 spaces and bike rental by reservation
• HTM, fares and subscriptions 2026: the P+R Victory Boogiewoogie product from 6.50 euro