Student housing shortage intensifies in the Netherlands

The shortage of student housing in the Netherlands is reaching critical levels, particularly in cities like Nijmegen, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. In Nijmegen, student housing provider SSH& reported receiving over 10,000 responses to room advertisements in July, an increase from the previous year. To address the crisis, Nijmegen aims to construct 2,500 new rooms and studios by 2035, with SSH& planning to provide 1,600 of those units.

Nationally, the shortage is driving a shift in student behavior. The percentage of university and vocational students living away from home has dropped from 52 percent to 44 percent over the last eight years. Many students are abandoning their search entirely due to the lack of availability and high costs, which average €643 per month in the private sector. In cities like Amsterdam, monthly rents can reach approximately €950.

The scarcity is also contributing to increased rental fraud and academic disruption. In Eindhoven, approximately 500 first-year students—roughly one in six new students—were forced to withdraw before the academic year began because they could not secure housing. Additionally, the Landelijke Studentenvakbond reported that one in ten inquiries to its housing hotline involved rental fraud, such as students losing deposits to non-existent rooms.