The housing crisis in the Netherlands is bad for everyone. But with the influx of foreign students, a shortage of adequate student housing, skyrocketing rent, and having no income, university students struggle more than most.
A solution to the problem is student housing portals like ROOM.nl, where students are allocated a room or studio (from a corporation like DUWO) in their university city based on their registration time.
This means that the longer a student has been registered with the site, the higher their position in the ranking and the greater their chance of getting a room.
Sounds good, right? Right, except waiting times are getting out of hand.
Longer than a bachelor’s degree
As NU.nl reports, the average time students have to be registered with student housing providers to obtain accommodation is 3.5 years.
A Dutch bachelor’s degree program lasts three years — so yes, students are often finished with their studies before they’re even eligible for accommodation.
READ MORE | Why is there a housing shortage in the Netherlands? The Dutch housing crisis explained
And those numbers just keep increasing. Why? Because there is just too little accommodation for students, and the rooms that we do have are often kept occupied by recent graduates who cannot afford to move on to a starter home.
In some cities, like Leiden, Delft, and Eindhoven, the situation is especially bad. Here, students have to wait over five years to qualify for adequate student housing.
If you want a real chance of getting a student room or studio in the Netherlands, you have to sign up long before you even enrol in university.
READ MORE | ‘No internationals’: A tale of exclusion in the Dutch housing market
For many internationals who have no idea about the housing crisis until they get here, that’s not an option. They’re often left paying extortionate rents in the free sector.
Waiting times depend on location
The situation is bad in every student city in the Netherlands, but some places have it much worse than others. 👇
| City | Waiting time for a student room (in years) |
| Tilburg | 2.9 |
| Groningen | 3 |
| Breda | 3.4 |
| Wageningen | 3.5 |
| Rotterdam | 3.8 |
| The Hague | 3.8 |
| Amsterdam | 4.9 |
| Eindhoven | 5.1 |
| Delft | 5.2 |
| Leiden | 5.3 |
Now what?
As chairman Jolan de Bie from Kences, a research centre for student housing, tells NU, there is a plan for action.
“The goal is to build 60,000 new student homes by 2030,” she says. “We are well on our way, but there is still much to be done to meet the goals.”
Did you study in the Netherlands? What’s your experience with student housing? Share them in the comments!