Dutch Student Union

How to find a room?

A student house, a studio, hospita, or anti-squatting? Below you will find information about your options and a specially compiled overview to make it easier for you to find accommodation in the city where you want to study. We have selected a number of useful websites for you, as well as websites where you should avoid searching! Always check before you sign a contract that there are no crazy conditions in your contract, that you understand what kind of contract you are getting, & check that you are not paying too much rent. Some rooms really are too good to be true. In case you have questions about student housing, you can always reach out to the Housing Hotline of the LSVb.

Enlist with Room.nl

Social student housing providers provide good student housing at a fair price. They operate on a non-profit basis and have many student houses in every city. Most housing providers work with lottery, waiting lists or hospiteren. With a one-time registration with room.nl you can look for a room or studio in almost every city. You can register from the age of 16, even if you are not yet a student. The earlier you register, the better your chances of finding a place. Also, you do not have to be a Dutch national or enlisted in a Dutch university to enlist for the site.

Check for University Housing with your educational facility

A lot of educational facilities offer prioritized housing for first year students, though often only in limited supply. Be sure to check the website of your educational facility to see if you are eligible for such a housing scheme. This may work on a first-come first-serve basis or on a lottery system.

Finding a room via a room finding site

Often rooms are registered on room websites such as kamernet.nl. This is a common method of finding a room and does not work with waiting periods. New rooms and houses are listed here daily, where you have to respond as soon as possible. By the way, these sites pay absolutely no attention to the amount of rent asked. All too often it is above the legal maximum. Always be careful with these sites: after all, anyone can post a room on them. For example, be careful not to pay large sums of money before you have seen the room and review the contract carefully before you sign it. The rent of homes by private landlords is usually higher than that of housing associations, but this also varies by city and landlord. Hospice housing is also often offered through these websites.

You can try looking for an apartment or room via the following national sites:
(Further below you can find links per city)

Only expats is focused on the international student market. Prices vary, but there are always rooms available in many different cities.

IamExpat is for international students as well. This website has a good search engine, plenty of rooms and locations all over the Netherlands.

This website offers the biggest network of hosts and guest families in the Netherlands. All hosts are personally verified, which makes this platform a safe choice. Rental prices are often lower than the average on the private housing market. Staying with a host or guest family will provide you with a soft landing in town and is the perfect way to get in touch with the local culture and language. You’ll have your own private room and shared facilities, like a kitchen and bathroom. Registration at www.hospihousing.com is free and there’s no limit in responding to hosts. They have a no room, no pay concept and only charge a one-time matchmaking fee of €295 when you find a room.

This is an expensive website, but the amount of available rooms on the website makes up for that. Unfortunately there are so many students on this website that most good rooms are gone in a blink of an eye. This could make finding a room difficult, especially for international students.

Once you filter out the appartments there are some student rooms left on Funda. Renting though this website might cost realtor fees though.

  • Facebook (Free)

Kamer gezocht/aangeboden (Group)

You can find more facebook-groups via the local pages linked below. Do be aware that there are quite a lot of scammers active in these facebook groups. Tips on how to avoid getting scammed can be found here.

Anti-squatting

Would you rather try anti-squatting? If so, the following websites are good places to go:

1.Mosaic World
2.Ad hoc Management
3.Gapph
Note: Anti-squatting also comes with risks, as your tenancy rights are much less protected.

We do NOT recommend these websites:

The Social Hub (formerly The Student Hotel) and the Dutch student union have been engaged for quite a while. We reject the high rental fees and the way in which the Social Hub fails to comply with student housing rights, by appealing to hotel rights.

Directwonen.nl asks illegal additional fees. These fees can amount to 600 Euros and that is before you can even enter the room.

Housing anywhere does not check it’s landlords. There are a lot of known bad landlords active on this website.

Options per city:

Click on the name of the city you would like to live/study in!

The links on these pages do not (yet) mention prices and are not divided in good and bad websites. We have tried to provide an overview that is as complete as possible. If you have any suggestions for additions or any remarks concerning the pages, please send an e-mail to lsvb@lsvb.nl.

Amsterdam

Delft

Eindhoven

Enschede

Groningen

Leiden

Maastricht

Nijmegen

Rotterdam

Tilburg

Utrecht

Wageningen

 

Housing Hotline

Does your landlord ask for key money? Are you unsure about what is and is not allowed in a rental agreement? Are you unsure about whether you are allowed to sublet your room? The Housing Hotline of the LSVb is ready to answer all your questions about tenancy law and housing.