‘Construction of thousands of student rooms at risk’

Kences, the umbrella organisation for social student housing providers, is ‘astonished’ by the cabinet’s decision to not increase social rents for two years. “We support a rent freeze for students”, Kences writes in a press release, ‘but the downside is that we can build fewer rooms and make less progress on sustainability, which would, of course, contribute to the affordability of living costs’.

According to Kences, there is currently a shortage of around 25,000 student homes in the Netherlands. An initial assessment among Kences members indicates that the construction of ‘certainly several thousand student homes’ cannot proceed due to the rent freeze.

The Woonbond is also sounding the alarm. According to the tenants’ advocacy group, housing corporations are receiving insufficient compensation for the rent freeze, while the cabinet has the means to do so: it is spending less on housing benefits now that part of the rents is not increasing. Moreover, the cabinet is said to be giving ‘all the space’ to landlords, for example, by allowing fewer homes to qualify for rent price protection.

The National Student Union is also angry about this last point. “While the rent for social rental rooms is frozen, students who do not live in social rental rooms will face additional rent increases on top of what has already been announced.” The LSVb is urging students to participate in the Housing Protest on 10 May in Utrecht.