How the housing crisis in the Netherlands became my own mental crisis

When I applied to study in the Netherlands in January 2023, I did not realise yet how challenging it is to find housing here.

In fact, my university (THUAS) did provide housing for first-year students, but those spots were quite limited. Unfortunately, I could not secure a place, and according to my best friend’s experience, ”they were gone in about 15 minutes”.

So, imagine a situation: you get conditionally accepted into your dream university and become increasingly happy about it, but then you get to know that there is a housing shortage in the Netherlands…and now stop imagining, because that happened in real life.

Solving the "crisis"

You might be wondering now: ‘What did you do to solve this “crisis”?’ Well, it was a dense path, but I will try to summarise it below to give an overview of the Dutch housing market and share some useful tips that might help you save time and money.

1. As advised by the university, I started looking as soon as possible (and as mentioned above, even before I was fully admitted) + considered options not only in my initial place of future studying, but also in neighbouring cities.
2. I subscribed to Facebook groups that I found by putting ‘student housing in the Netherlands’ in the search bar (you can also mention your city of choice). This helped to connect with other students.
3. A one-month subscription on kamernet is highly recommended!! (and this is not a paid advertisement, just my honest opinion)
   

Tips

Overall, this experience was challenging but doable! I found my room in a shared apartment via kamernet and now I would like to share some valuable tips:

• Expand the territory of your hunt: try to look beyond, covering the cities which are close by (you may find that the rent is cheaper there)
• Dive into this as your full-time job (it is important to understand that it is quite time-consuming as you will need to check updates regularly, reply as soon as possible and schedule viewings with potential landlords)
• Make a good first impression (when you apply for properties, make sure your message is concise and well-written - this will ease the process of selecting you as a future tenant among other candidates)
• Beware of scammers! Unfortunately, due to a high demand for housing, there will be fake adverts. So while searching, try to always read attentively what the conditions are (they might sound too good to be true), whether the viewing is possible and if the landlord is asking you to transfer the deposit only after signing up the rental agreement.

I really hope that after reading this blog, you have a better understanding of how housing market in the Netherlands actually works and what you can do to speed up the process of finding your future home. Good luck!!