New rent regulations making student housing even scarcer

AMSTERDAM--Students in the Netherlands or travelling to the Netherlands, are having an even harder time finding a home in the run-up to the next academic year. In the past quarter, there were fewer than 5,800 student homes available on the market. That is 30 percent less than the same quarter last year, NRC calculated. Market parties blame new regulations for landlords for the decrease in the already scarce supply, Nieuwsuur reported.

According to Kences, a knowledge center for student housing, 43 percent of student homes are owned by private landlords. And many private landlords have been selling their rentals into the owner-occupied market due to new regulations making renting them out less profitable.

Last year, the Affordable Rent Act took effect, subjecting mid-market homes to rent regulation. As a result, the rent is now often lower than landlords want to charge. In addition, the tax in box 3, which includes tax on residential rent income, has increased. And landlords must now apply for a permit from the municipality if they want to rent a home to more than two people.

“We see that many buildings with student rooms have been sold in the past year, especially in university cities,’ Kences director Jolan de Bie told Nieuwsuur. That is bad news for students and the knowledge economy, he said. “Due to the lack of housing, students are sometimes unable to study the course they want. So our higher education is becoming less accessible.”

“We now manage six student houses, which are all being sold,” realtor Robert Kraaij of Rotsvast Vastgoed told Nieuwsuur. “Renting to students simply does not bring in enough money anymore.”

Luuk Bruijnen, vice chairman of the student union LSVb, has personal experience with the housing shortage. He has been studying in Utrecht for four years, but still does not have a room there. He travels back and forth from Zwolle, which takes about an hour. “There are students who travel much further. That is time that you would rather spend on maintaining social contacts or on your studies. And you hardly get any connection with the city where you study,” Bruijnen told the program.

Bruijnen is not impressed by landlords’ complaints that student housing is no longer profitable enough. “Slumlords mainly want to squeeze students and make as much money as possible, instead of offering reasonable housing to young people.” He thinks the higher education institutions can do more. “Universities and colleges must take responsibility and provide the students they accept with good housing on campus.”

Kences director De Bie thinks that municipalities can help by making it easier for landlords to rent to three or more students. Something also needs to be done about the flow out of student housing. Due to the general housing shortage, people often continue living in student rooms after graduation. De Bie suggests campus contracts. “This means that commercial parties include in the contract that as soon as you graduate, you leave your room.”