‘grueling’ & ‘degrading’ Housing Crisis: Dutch Students Are Fed Up

STUDENTS successful nan Netherlands person developed rather a bleak outlook connected assemblage life owed to nan existent student lodging shortage crisis. Even Wageningen, a mini assemblage metropolis astir an hr and a half from Amsterdam by train and erstwhile hailed arsenic nan cheapest student city, has seen unmanageable, skyrocketing prices for nan aforesaid rooms – immoderate moreover falling into disrepair – and sharing pinch dozens of different housemates.

Premium prices … to stock pinch 20 different people

“I’ve decidedly noticed an summation successful nan room prices passim my clip successful Wageningen. To beryllium fair, this is my 6th twelvemonth surviving here, truthful a quality is to beryllium expected, but this goes beyond that,” said Eloïse Nobel, a Dutch student presently staying astatine a student residence successful Wageningen. Nobel is nan residence’s Corridor Manager, whose responsibilities see uncovering caller housemates erstwhile students move out. “I’ve noticed immense differences successful nan magnitude of group that will use to nan rooms we offer. We’ve gone from a fewer 100 to, if we’re lucky, astir a dozen. This makes it difficult for america to find suitable group to unrecorded with, moreover though there’s a lodging crisis.”

Nobel besides expressed emotion bad astatine having to connection rooms priced acold supra nan average, which for Wageningen is astir €400. In Nobel’s accommodation, location are a full of 25 housemates – nan astir that could legally unrecorded location – and immoderate of nan rooms are arsenic overmuch arsenic €600 a month. Interestingly, nan accommodation is really a repurposed biology building, built successful nan 1960s … successful different words, a building ne'er intended for semipermanent accommodation. “Some group still person laboratory worldly successful their rooms,” said Nobel. “And yet sometimes, group person nary different prime but to judge since there’s constricted housing.”

Nobel has tried her manus astatine fighting nan rent increases, but nan problem is acold excessively difficult to title without due ineligible representation. “We’ve besides had problems pinch nan erstwhile institution successful complaint of renting nan rooms. They charged nan basal rent of immoderate rooms much than legally allowed. […] With nan reluctant and slow answers of nan institution regarding what attributes they considered, it was very difficult to plead our lawsuit for little rent.”

According to Nobel, galore lodging companies will level retired disregard nan rising rent crisis, and owed to nan lodging shortage successful nan Netherlands, there’s not overmuch nan students aliases Corridor Managers for illustration Nobel tin do astir it.

“Grueling” and “degrading”: The near-impossible feat of uncovering a room successful nan Netherlands

Yrsa Rademaker, different Wageningen student sharing nan accommodation, besides expressed grievances pinch nan student lodging crisis. “I unrecorded successful Wageningen now and I salary €530 rent for this location that we stock pinch 25 people. This is astir apt 1 of nan cheapest places you tin find successful nan Netherlands for student apartments because successful nan large cities, it’s perfectly crazy,” Rademaker said. “In Amsterdam, you salary much than €1000 a period for a mini room that you stock pinch people. The process of uncovering thing is truthful grueling and long, you person to nonstop emails to group and fundamentally use for a room. It’s for illustration a occupation application, but for a location … and it feels degrading.”

Continues Rademaker, “It’s ace costly erstwhile you do get [a room]. I cannot support a occupation pinch my studies, and astir apt 70 per cent of my full income goes to rent. And that’s conscionable really it is. The only measurement you tin find something, if you want to unrecorded successful a city, is if you person rich | parents and they bargain thing for you that you tin stock pinch your friends, aliases if you cognize people.” Rademaker affirmed that if you’re an world student, don’t cognize anyone successful nan Netherlands, aliases simply don’t person money, you’re retired of luck.

“On lodging sites, I’ve seen existent caravans – for illustration camping vehicles – put connected location for €600 a month, adjacent to a highway. […] And this was a fewer years ago, truthful it’s much costly now.”

She joked, “In Wageningen, it’s really amended than successful nan remainder of nan country, because group want to time off present aft surviving present for 2 years. But if you get a room successful Amsterdam, moreover if it’s a student house, you’re not leaving there. Because there’s thing else.” Indeed, according to Rademaker, student accommodations successful Amsterdam steadily summation nan desired property scope of caller housemates, since students who yet find rooms don’t thin to move out.

The cold, difficult facts

Aside from their lived experiences, caller figures from student accommodation accusation centres propose that Dutch students are giving up nan hunt for student lodging and opting to enactment successful their parents’ location during their clip successful university. Not only this, those who do negociate to find lodging are so paying done nan nose.

According to figures from Kamernet, nan mean rent for student accommodations successful nan Netherlands has gone up by much than 6 per cent successful nan first 3 months of this year, compared to nan aforesaid play of past year. The towns of Wageningen and Leiden knowledgeable nan top increases during this period, pinch 19.7 per cent and 18.4 per cent, respectively.

The dreamlike Netherlands, pinch a nightmarish lodging crisis

It’s unsurprising, then, that galore students take to stay astatine location alternatively than task to effort to find accommodation, which stymies their state and learning experiences, arsenic good arsenic takes distant from nan oft-desired “university experience.” Students for illustration Nobel and Rademaker, contempt surviving successful what was agelong considered nan cheapest metropolis for students, are giving distant nan expansive mostly of their income to rent, without a afloat clip occupation to guidelines on. Until nan lodging shortage is alleviated and rent regulations are much firmly cracked down upon, this is nan reality of these 2 young women and galore students crossed nan full of nan Netherlands.