Six in ten student rooms too expensive, municipalities rarely intervene (except Rotterdam)

Six in ten rooms on Kamernet are too expensive: landlords charge an average of 239 euros a month more than allowed. In Amsterdam, virtually all rooms cost too much. In Rotterdam, by contrast, the council took action hundreds of times. This was discovered by investigative journalism programme Argos.

The journalists examined more than 2,500 adverts on Kamernet in July and August, the largest provider of student rooms in the Netherlands. They compared the advertised rents with the maximum rent legally allowed for a room.

They found that six in ten rooms were too expensive. In Amsterdam, 97 per cent of the rooms examined were too expensive, costing an average of 421 euros more than allowed. In Leiden and Utrecht, the figures were 81 and 72 per cent respectively. Enschede, where the housing shortage is less acute, came to ‘only’ 14 per cent.

Point system

The maximum rent is calculated using a point system and is intended to protect room tenants from excessive rents. The upper limit is based on factors including the size of the room, the number of housemates and the shared facilities.

Under the Affordable Rent Act of 2024, municipalities can intervene if landlords charge too much rent. However, they make little use of this option, Argos says. No fines are said to have been issued in Utrecht and Nijmegen. In Amsterdam, only two landlords are said to have been involved in 2025.

Rotterdam

Some cities are actively taking action. In Rotterdam, eight in ten of the rooms examined were too expensive, but the municipality took action hundreds of times.

The high rents are linked to the persistent shortage of rooms. According to research, there is a nationwide shortage of more than 20,000 rooms. Many students therefore give up their search.

The Argos programme on the subject will be broadcast on NPO Radio 1 on Saturday at 2 pm.