Room shortage shrinks, Dutch students live on their own less and less often

For the first time in years, the room shortage is shrinking. But that is only temporary, warn student housing corporations. Now that the basic grant is returning, more students will want to live on their own again. The housing market in Rotterdam is very tight and the prices higher than average.

Dutch students are living on their own less and less often. Since the introduction of the loan system in 2015, the proportion of Dutch students living away from home has decreased from 53 to 44 per cent.

High rents

For almost half of students living at home, high room rents are the main reason for not moving into rooms, according to the new National Student Housing Monitor. But now that the basic grant has been reintroduced, demand will grow rapidly again, expects Kences, the branch organisation of student housing corporations.

The shortage of student houses has dropped from 27,000 to 23,700 since last year, but by 2030 it is expected to rise again to between 39,700 and 56,800. So a good reason to keep building vigorously, Kences believes.

Tight housing market

Incidentally, the total number of students living away from home in the Netherlands did rise compared to 2015-2016. This is because the Netherlands now has many more international students, almost all of whom live in student housing. Of all 754,500 students in the Netherlands, including international students, 400 thousand are living in student housing.

In Amsterdam, Delft, Eindhoven, Leiden, Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Den Bosch, Utrecht and Zwolle, the housing market for students is currently the tightest.

Rotterdam is expensive

Housing costs are higher than average in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague. For example, a room with shared facilities in Rotterdam costs on average 550 euros per month, while in Leiden, for example, it is only 460 euros.