Nearly twelve thousand students checked last year how much rent they should be paying. To this end, they answered a few questions on the National Student Union’s website about how much rent they were paying and what kind of facilities were available in their accommodations.
This survey, based on the so-called . The property rating system can be used to determine the maximum rent payable. Students wishing to dispute the rental prices they are charged can receive support from a rent tribunal.
Rotterdam-based students have big rooms, but are overcharged
The Union found that 70 percent of respondents were paying too much rent. On average, these students were charged €104.45 more than they were supposed to pay. Enschede was the only student town in the Netherlands where students actually paid less than they were supposed to.
The Union admitted that students are unlikely to have their rental prices assessed if they are happy with what they are paying. Therefore, the report does not purport to show what percentage of students is being overcharged. Nevertheless, the sample size is significant and does show a trend, in that students in Amsterdam and Utrecht, where the student housing shortage is the most severe, are being overcharged the most. This is unlikely to be a coincidence.
Generally speaking, renting a room in Rotterdam is quite expensive, the National Student Union’s report shows. Sixty-one percent of the Rotterdam-based students who had their rental prices assessed found they were being overcharged. On average, they were overcharged €109 per month. On the other hand, Rotterdam-based students do have large rooms, with the average floor area of a student room coming in at 19.5 square metres.
Exploitation
“It is unbelievable that the government is not intervening, and is allowing students to be exploited like this,” said LSVb President Geertje Hulzebos in the press release accompanying the study report. “Due to the severe shortage of student rooms, students have no choice but to accept accommodations that are unaffordable.”
The Union advocates that hefty fines be imposed on overcharging landlords. In addition, the Union feels that the government should enforce the law itself, rather than leaving it up to students to contact a rent tribunal, whose procedures can take several months to be completed.
Last week the Kamernet room rental site reported (on the basis of the rooms offered to students in the first months of 2018) that average room rent now exceeded €400. Kamernet, too, found that Amsterdam was the most expensive student town in the Netherlands. According to the room rental site, rental prices are rising fastest in Rotterdam, where the average rental price has risen by 7.4 percent to reach €458 per month (up from €426).
