Housing corporations: ‘Students with roommates are happier’

It is better for students to live in a room with a shared kitchen and shower than in a studio, student housing providers believe. According to them, the number of shared student housing should not decline further.

In the fight against loneliness and stress among students, Kences, the trade association of social student housing corporations, says it is not good that the share of room dwellers has decreased from 58 to 52 per cent over the past eight years, while the share of students with an independent studio increased from 12 to 23 per cent.

Good connection

Students in rooms are in fact considerably happier, argues Kences on the basis of a further analysis of the most recently published National Student Housing Monitor. In it, 75 per cent of the surveyed room dwellers said they had a good relationship with their housemates. Among students in a studio – that is, without roommates – only 42 per cent said that about their neighbours. They are more likely to be socially isolated, Kences director Jolan de Bie stressed last autumn.

More lucrative

Yet more and more studios are being built because they are much more lucrative for landlords. These can charge significantly higher rents thanks to rent subsidies for residents.

By also entitling students living in rooms to financial compensation, the housing costs of shared  accommodations would become more balanced with those of studios and it would also become attractive to build rooms again.

Kences also warns of a decline in the number of shared housing rented out commercially. Last year, these together still accounted for 53 per cent of the supply.