Netherlands: Housing shortage hits university students

DW (English)

Thousands of university students in the Netherlands cannot find accommodation, potentially derailing their education plans. Authorities in Utrecht even put up tents in a train station to serve as temporary student housing.

Transcript

00:01Glamping at Utrecht's train station?

00:04What looks like a fun summer camp for new students

00:06is in fact a response to a severe housing crisis crippling the Netherlands.

00:11It's really hard. I personally live with my parents because it's just not affordable.

00:15It's incredibly difficult to find housing on your own.

00:18Currently I'm living in a very expensive studio but I can't find anything else.

00:23We went to Utrecht to find out more about the current situation in the country.

00:30Utrecht Central Station.

00:32With the start of the academic year the National Train Company

00:35has decided to put up tents for newly arrived students.

00:38But once Freshers Week was over, the tents came down,

00:41the station returned to normal and so did the problems, says Bo Zeeland.

00:46Now the tents are gone and these students that didn't have to commute for a week

00:49do actually have to commute now.

00:51And sometimes they'll be travelling more than two hours just to go to uni.

00:55Born in Utrecht, Bo now works for the National Students' Union

00:59and knows exactly how tough the housing market has become.

01:02Rents rose by more than five percent in just the past year.

01:05Bo feels it himself.

01:07700 euros a month for just nine square meters in a shared flat in Amsterdam.

01:12Every month when I pay the rent to my landlord I do feel like,

01:15wow, you get so much money just for owning a house.

01:18In a housing crisis that's where you're able to extract so much money from it.

01:21So it also makes me quite mad.

01:23That's also where the energy comes from to be doing so much with tenancy rights

01:27and housing advocacy.

01:32Once a week he works at the Student Housing Hotline,

01:35set up to help Dutch and international students find a room

01:38and learn about their rights.

01:40By far the most common question, unsurprisingly, is people asking how to find a room.

01:47But next to that we also have a lot of questions about people not getting their deposits back

01:51or people being not sure whether their contract is legal.

01:55But what we also see really rising is the amount of scams on, for instance,

02:00room finding sites where people think they are renting a room but it turns out to not exist.

02:04The situation is getting worse.

02:06On one housing website the average asking price for a room in Utrecht

02:10is now around 800 euros a month, he tells us.

02:13For most students that's only manageable with parental support,

02:16a loan or a job alongside their studies.

02:21At Utrecht University the new academic year is just beginning.

02:25Through the excitement of a fresh start,

02:27many students are already feeling the strain of the housing crisis.

02:31Pretty unsettling to commit to doing a master's here without having secured housing.

02:37I also have a couple of course mates that had to drop the classes

02:42because they could not find anything.

02:44Roman Ellenbrook works for Utrecht University

02:48and supports students in their search for housing.

02:50He's been proud of the university's global reputation,

02:53attracting talent from around the world.

02:55But today that reputation is overshadowed.

02:58Even if international students have received a place here in Utrecht

03:02and they don't have housing,

03:04we would actually advise them not to come.

03:06We do this with pain in our hearts,

03:08but to be realistic for a student,

03:10there's just not enough student housing.

03:15Utrecht University says it wants to help,

03:17but its hands are tied.

03:19By law it cannot provide student housing.

03:21The responsibility for building new homes lies with private companies and the city.

03:27What we do to tackle the problem,

03:29of course, is to build new houses.

03:31The city is growing approximately with 3,000 new houses per year.

03:36And if you look at the year 26,

03:39it is growing with 1,500 houses for students.

03:42We need support from a national level,

03:43and that's quite a challenge at the moment.

03:45A challenge because the Dutch government has fallen apart again.

03:51Now elections are looming.

03:53And like in many other countries in Europe,

03:55the number one topic is the housing crisis.

03:58In recent years, Dutch public housing corporations

04:01have built only half as many homes as promised.

04:03An estimated 400,000 houses are missing.

04:10This will keep Bo busy working at the Students' Union helpline.

04:14I cannot help every student,

04:16but there are a lot of cases where students are in a precarious position

04:20and they don't know what their rights are,

04:21they don't know how to continue,

04:23and then we are able to actually help them move along.

04:27Bo hopes that the new Dutch government

04:29will make this topic its number one priority,

04:31so that no student has to sleep in a tent anymore.

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