{"id":80315,"date":"2017-09-14T11:29:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T09:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=80315"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:50","slug":"growing-housing-shortage-for-students-in-rotterdam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/09\/14\/growing-housing-shortage-for-students-in-rotterdam\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing shortage: Rotterdam is lacking thousands of rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"888\" src=\"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2017\/09\/07103028\/Woningnood.-Unit20-1280x888.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139124\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-80341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2017\/09\/07103028\/Woningnood.-Unit20-1280x888.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139124 1280w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2017\/09\/07103028\/Woningnood.-Unit20-875x607.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139124 875w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2017\/09\/07103028\/Woningnood.-Unit20-300x208.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139124 300w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2017\/09\/07103028\/Woningnood.-Unit20.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139124 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/figure><p>In the past, fraud, rack-renters, and long waiting lists didn\u2019t seem to be such a problem in Rotterdam, but the housing shortage is rapidly growing. One of the main causes of this is the increase in the number of international students.<\/p>\n\t<div data-name=\"acf\/featured-text\" class=\"md:mt-6 p-4 md:p-6 lg:p-8 bg-sand-300 theme-sand:bg-white theme-violet:bg-white theme-mocha:bg-white wysiwyg *:last:mb-0!\" >\n\t\t<p><strong>In short:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The shortage of student rooms in Rotterdam has more than doubled in recent years<\/li>\n<li>All major student housing organizations see an increase in subscriptions<\/li>\n<li>The influx of international students causes additional pressure on the housing market<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<p>This summer she thought she had found the house of her dreams. Vietnamese student Huyen Vu (19) and a girlfriend from Vietnam were looking for living quarters in Rotterdam. She responded immediately to an ad and asked if she could view the house. But: \u201cThe owner lived in the UK and wanted an advance payment of 1,000 euros before he would travel to the Netherlands for a house viewing. Using Western Union, we were able to transfer the money to a friend of ours in London. If we sent the owner proof of the money transfer, he would show us the house and collect the money later.\u201d The dream house turned into a nightmare. The house owner never showed up, the house didn\u2019t exist, and it turned out the 1,000 euros was collected in China.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Housing shortage doubled<\/h3><p>These are the commonly heard stories about swindles involving rooms for rent and rent-rackers: in cities suffering from a housing shortage, students are left holding the bag. They have to deal with poor maintenance, sky-high rents and downright fraud. It never seemed to be quite as bad in Rotterdam, but the housing shortage is getting worse. Only Amsterdam and Utrecht have a more acute shortage of student housing. According to the 2016 National Student Housing Monitor, the shortage in Rotterdam has more than doubled.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2013-14 academic year there were approximately 2,300 students who failed to find accommodations. Two years later that number grew to 4,800. And there\u2019s no sign that the scarce housing situation will improve. While there is ongoing construction, expectations are that student numbers will continue to rise in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\t<div data-name=\"acf\/quote\" class=\"align\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t<figure data-component=\"quote-with-author\" class=\"@container\">\n\t<blockquote class=\"text-md italic @2xl:text-xl @4xl:text-2xl text-purple\">\n\t\t\u2018Expectations are that student numbers will continue to rise in the coming years\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>This summer, residents of student houses noticed their rooms were in demand among house hunters. Three rooms were up for rent at the \u2018BP\u2019 student house on the Bergpolderstaat, recounts Nikki Jansen (22). She arranged a viewing evening in early August. There was huge interest in the rooms: \u201cWe had 130 responses on Facebook and 30 on the kamernet website.\u201d The 21 year-old Max van Winden has also noticed the high demand for student accommodations. Together with his housemates, he was looking for a fifth housemate for their student house on the Gerard Scholtenstraat. \u201cWithin four days we had 60 responses to our invitation and the messages kept coming, even during the selection evening when we were already interviewing candidates for the room.<\/p>\n\t<div data-name=\"acf\/featured-text\" class=\"md:mt-6 p-4 md:p-6 lg:p-8 bg-sand-300 theme-sand:bg-white theme-violet:bg-white theme-mocha:bg-white wysiwyg *:last:mb-0!\" >\n\t\t<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left; width: 25%; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/erasmus-magazine\/app\/uploads\/2017\/09\/06113815\/IMG_9884.jpg\" alt=\"Annabel\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Name<\/strong>: Annabel Hellemons<br \/>\n<strong>Age<\/strong>: 19<br \/>\n<strong>Study<\/strong>: Pedagogical Sciences (2nd year)<br \/>\n<strong>Looking for<\/strong>: A clean house and cosy room mates<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI currently have a place to live in Rotterdam, but I\u2019m not happy there. My landlord ignores the complaints I\u2019ve made. The light in the bathroom hasn\u2019t worked for a long time and I\u2019ve mentioned that to him a few times. And there\u2019s also not much of a bond between housemates. When I wanted this accommodation last year, I had to sign a contract for a year, so I can only start looking for something new now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I started looking early on in the summer, it was disappointing. There are a lot of expensive accommodations for rent on Facebook pages, and there\u2019s often a crowd on the evenings where candidates are invited to a meeting to see if one of us will get the room. I\u2019ve been to 10 of them at this point. There was even one evening where I was there with 25 other candidates. Try making an impression on all the potential housemates in that kind of a situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s difficult about finding the right accommodation is that there are conditions attached to the places for rent: male roommate only, must be older than 22, must be a member of a specific student association and so on. It\u2019s difficult enough just to be invited to a selection evening. I sometimes hear that some houses had 80 responses for a vacancy. In those cases a selection is made based purely on Facebook profiles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Massive shortage for internationals\u2019<\/h3><p>An identical picture emerges when surveying the various student housing providers who service about one-third of the market. For the last few years in a row, Stadswonen, the largest provider in Rotterdam, has seen a slight increase in the number of people looking for housing, says spokeswoman Hedy Brak. This year is no different. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a strong increase in the number of participants in our housing promotions. Last year we had 850, this year 1050. The housing provider organises an annual promotion every summer offering student housing specifically for first-years. All the accommodations were taken by the final day of Eurekaweek.<\/p>\n<p>The new building just outside of the Woudestein campus was also almost immediately at full occupancy. In the last week of August, before the building was even completed, students already started moving into the first habitable floors. The 280 units are exclusively for new international students. \u201cWe anticipated this\u201d, says a spokesperson for the Belgian housing provider XIOR, the company renting out the apartments. \u201cWe\u2019ve noticed that there\u2019s a massive shortage of accommodations for international students.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Internationals create extra pressure<\/h3><p>The increase in the number of international students is creating extra pressure in the housing market in university towns and cities. Student housing provider SSH reserves part of its accommodations for international students. The newspaper Trouw reported this summer that all of these accommodations were rented out by the end of July in the cities of Utrecht, Zwolle, Maastricht, Groningen, Tilburg, and Rotterdam. This all happened much more rapidly than in previous years. All rooms Erasmus University reserves at SSH for international students were fully booked by the end of June. Dorota de Blanken of SSH Rotterdam sees the housing shortage getting worse. \u201cThe number of students enrolling\u00a0is growing and more and more people are responding to ads for accommodations for rent, especially ones for self-contained housing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t<div data-name=\"acf\/quote\" class=\"align\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t<figure data-component=\"quote-with-author\" class=\"@container\">\n\t<blockquote class=\"text-md italic @2xl:text-xl @4xl:text-2xl text-purple\">\n\t\t\u2018The increase in the number of international students is creating extra pressure in the housing market in university towns and cities\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>According to De Blanken, the growth in international student numbers is indeed the cause of the shortage. \u201cThe number of housing units reserved by educational institutions for international students has barely increased during the past few years, while the number of international students is rapidly growing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, it\u2019s not just international students who are responsible for the shortage. Rotterdam as a city is growing more popular. \u201cThe demand for housing is rising throughout the entire city\u201d, says Heleen Zwebe, director of the rented accommodations team in Rotterdam. And where in past years housing providers were apprehensive that students would continue living at home longer due to the discontinued basic grant, Stadswonen\u2019s Hedy Brak now sees the opposite trend. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen evidence backing up the narrative that students are living at home longer. In our case, the average age where students register with us is actually dropping.\u201d<\/p>\n\t<div data-name=\"acf\/featured-text\" class=\"md:mt-6 p-4 md:p-6 lg:p-8 bg-sand-300 theme-sand:bg-white theme-violet:bg-white theme-mocha:bg-white wysiwyg *:last:mb-0!\" >\n\t\t<p><strong>What can you do against abusive practices?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Intro,sans-serif; font-weight: bold; padding: 5px; color: white; background: #F58683; margin-right: 5px;\">#01<\/span><b>Excessively high rent;<\/b> One of the most common problems is an excessively high rent. Many students pay too much, as was revealed in a Dutch Student Union (LSVb) study this past spring. Of the 215 respondents in Rotterdam, two-thirds were paying too much. On average the rent was almost 100 euros too high.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Intro,sans-serif; font-weight: bold; padding: 5px; color: white; background: #F58683; margin-right: 5px;\">#02<\/span>\u00a0<b>Exorbitant service costs; <\/b>Another problem is exorbitant service costs, explains Helen Zwebe of the rental accommodations team. Some landlords take the gamble that a tenant won\u2019t ask for a refund. \u201cIt often pays to take that step, even if you\u2019ve moved, because you can do it up to three years after the financial year in question.\u201d A key deposit or mediation costs are sometimes requested when signing a contract, but that is only allowed when the costs are in proportion to the service. Zwebe: \u201cIn practice, we often see that tenants ask for a month\u2019s rent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Intro,sans-serif; font-weight: bold; padding: 5px; color: white; background: #F58683; margin-right: 5px;\">#03<\/span>\u00a0<strong>Rent tribunal<\/strong><b>;<\/b> If you\u2019re involved in a dispute with your landlord, regarding the rent or overdue maintenance, you can turn to the Rent tribunal. You can do a rental price check on their website and you can initiate proceedings for 25 euros. The rental accommodations team can conduct the proceedings on your behalf and inspect the residence and the rental contract, for a sum equivalent to two months of the rental reduction.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Intro,sans-serif; font-weight: bold; padding: 5px; color: white; background: #F58683; margin-right: 5px;\">#04<\/span>\u00a0<b>Housing hotline; <\/b>On the LSVb website (www.dutchstudentunion.nl) you can do a rental price and fire safety check. You can also call the student union for free legal advice. Since this summer, the union also offers a housing hotline for international students. At the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eur.nl\/english\/essc\/internationaloffice\/studentlife\/orientation\/one_stop_shop\/\">One Stop Shops of the International Office<\/a>, you can also receive free legal advice about your housing situation.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Concerns following explosive\r\ngrowth<\/h3><p>Last month, the political party SP submitted Parliamentary questions about the housing shortage among students. The party believes that housing providers are unable to cope with the \u2018explosive growth\u2019 in international student numbers and is concerned about the \u2018potential increase in the number of homeless Dutch and international students and the driving up of prices for accommodations for students and others. Other concerns are an increase in the number of students signing illegal contracts, rack-renting, and fraud\u2019. With an increasing housing shortage, Zwebe expects the situation to deteriorate further. \u201cIt\u2019s not as bad as Amsterdam and Utrecht, where there has always been a chronic housing shortage, but the situation is slowly changing.\u201d Students, and certainly international students, have always been a vulnerable group, she says. \u201cThey often don\u2019t know enough about their rights as tenants, and they\u2019re eager, they badly want to find a place to live. That makes them an easy target for rack-renters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For fraud victim Huyen, the warnings about abusive practices in an overheated student housing market came too late. Fortunately she has now found good accommodations in Kralingen. At the time of writing, just a few days before lectures start, her friend is still in Vietnam. Without a place to live in Rotterdam.<\/p>\n\t<div data-name=\"acf\/featured-text\" class=\"md:mt-6 p-4 md:p-6 lg:p-8 bg-sand-300 theme-sand:bg-white theme-violet:bg-white theme-mocha:bg-white wysiwyg *:last:mb-0!\" >\n\t\t<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left; width: 25%; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/erasmus-magazine\/app\/uploads\/2017\/09\/06113821\/Special-Laura.jpg\" alt=\"Laura\" \/><strong>Name<\/strong>: Laura Houtenbrink<br \/>\n<strong>Age<\/strong>: 19<br \/>\n<strong>Study<\/strong>: Philosophy (2nd year)<br \/>\n<b>Looking for<\/b>:\u00a0Accommodations within cycling distance of the university, not too expensive<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt all went wrong when I had a place to live in Rotterdam last year. It was a pleasant house: I shared the bathroom with only one other girl, and the rest was mine. But there were conflicts with that other girl. Her behaviour was very obsessive. If I made the slightest mistake \u2013 such as forgetting to buy toilet paper \u2013 she would go crazy.<\/p>\n<p>At one point she lay in wait for me at home and attacked me with a pipe. \u201cThat\u2019s when I immediately left that house. I moved back in with my parents in Blijdorp and I reported the girl to the police. She now has a criminal record. I have to say that living at home again is quite a nuisance after living on your own. You have to take others into consideration by letting them know where you are.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow I\u2019m looking for a place to live again. I tried kamernet for a while but decided to stop. You have to pay them 30 euros per month to respond to ads for places up for rent. I find that excessive. I didn\u2019t receive many responses and there are some peculiar people advertising who were impossible to reach or didn\u2019t seem to exist on social media. So now I\u2019m searching through Facebook groups, even though there are some ads there where I also have my doubts. What I would like most \u2013 after the incident at my last place \u2013 is to share a house with friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t<div data-name=\"acf\/persons\" class=\"mt-6 md:mt-8 lg:mt-10\" >\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"sr-only\">De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"space-y-6\">\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<ul class=\"grid grid-cols-1 md:grid-cols-2 gap-4 md:gap-8 md:items-center\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div data-component=\"teaser-person\" class=\"relative flex gap-4 items-center md:gap-8\">\n\n\t\t\t<span class=\"image:rounded-full image:size-20 image:aspect-square image:object-cover md:image:size-36 shrink-0\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/Tim-Ficheroux_profielfoto-bol_Leroy-Verbeet-2026-1600x1600.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1768313449\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/Tim-Ficheroux_profielfoto-bol_Leroy-Verbeet-2026-1600x1600.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1768313449 1600w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/Tim-Ficheroux_profielfoto-bol_Leroy-Verbeet-2026-875x875.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1768313449 875w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/Tim-Ficheroux_profielfoto-bol_Leroy-Verbeet-2026-300x300.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1768313449 300w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/Tim-Ficheroux_profielfoto-bol_Leroy-Verbeet-2026-1280x1280.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1768313449 1280w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/Tim-Ficheroux_profielfoto-bol_Leroy-Verbeet-2026-1536x1536.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1768313449 1536w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/Tim-Ficheroux_profielfoto-bol_Leroy-Verbeet-2026-2048x2048.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1768313449 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n\t<div>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/persons\/tim-ficheroux\/\" class=\"absolute-link font-tiempos-headline underline hocus:no-underline decoration-1 underline-offset-2 text-lg text-current\">Tim Ficheroux<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"text-md\">Desk editor<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div data-component=\"teaser-person\" class=\"relative flex gap-4 items-center md:gap-8\">\n\n\t\t\t<span class=\"image:rounded-full image:size-20 image:aspect-square image:object-cover md:image:size-36 shrink-0\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-1600x1600.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-1600x1600.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 1600w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-875x875.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 875w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-300x300.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 300w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-1280x1280.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 1280w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-1536x1536.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 1536w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-2048x2048.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 2048w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-150x150.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 150w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-100x100.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 100w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-600x600.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 600w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-1000x1000.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 1000w, https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/09\/18102041\/Marko-de-Haan-1121-001-Levien-Willemse-225x225.jpg?image-crop-positioner-ts=1766139280 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n\t<div>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/persons\/marko-de-haan\/\" class=\"absolute-link font-tiempos-headline underline hocus:no-underline decoration-1 underline-offset-2 text-lg text-current\">Marko de Haan<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the past, fraud, rack-renters, and long waiting lists didn\u2019t seem to be such a problem in Rotterdam, but the housing shortage is rapidly growing. One of the main causes of this is the increase in the number of international students. This summer she thought she had found the house of her dreams. Vietnamese student [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":80341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_trash_the_other_posts":false,"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3800],"em_content_type":[],"class_list":["post-80315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Housing shortage: Rotterdam is lacking thousands of rooms<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The housing shortage is rapidly growing. One of the main causes of this is the increase in the number of international students.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/09\/14\/growing-housing-shortage-for-students-in-rotterdam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Housing shortage: Rotterdam is lacking thousands of rooms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The housing shortage is rapidly growing. 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