How much do you think is the average rent for a room in Utrecht, Holland? Its 450 Euro!
And that’s the problem, students these days have so much trouble finding a house, apartment or room that they are forced to pay a lot.
Do you know anyone who might offer a free room? A question which many students on search for accommodation had to ask already at least once – asking friends, social networks or real estate companies. Especially in the growing popular university city.
The housing problem becomes visible in the long lists for student dorms.
To avoid the free market and to try to get a dorm on the campus is difficult, there are huge waiting lists and almost only chances for non-European students to get a room.
With the mass inspections, dozens of students compete for a room, it doesn’t matter how small or how expensive the room is. They outbid themselves with parental guarantees, with salary declarations and with who can contribute the better coffeemaker for the flat sharing kitchen.
I even heard from students who had to take a multiple-choice test, so the house mates could find out who would fit the best in their apartment.
Sexual assault is one problem too. Landlords think they have the power over their tenants, so they are asking for sexual favors, to hold out the prospect of less costs or the guarantee for the room.
Desperate students search for help of agencies, which promise to find a nice room. But you’re either lucky or not. Besides the agency fee and a deposit, the rooms they offer are usually expensive and they are mostly looking for people with a solid income, not students.
Some people trying to make even more money, so they are trying to disguise especially students from abroad with pictures of nice rooms and asking for a direct deposit as a guarantee for the room. Unsuspecting students are supposed to transfer the money before they even have a chance of seeing the room. They transfer the money and never hear back from the supposedly agent.
One more option are different websites, for example Kamernet.nl . I was using this website for find a room myself. At first I was amazed by how many rooms they offer and how cheap their prices were compared to other websites. To contact the people who offer a room I had to create a detailed account and pay the monthly fee. I was sending messages to about 40 offers. I received 2 answers. Both were saying that they already found someone.
For a lot of students who could not find anything, couch surfing or hostels can be a temporary solution. Although it can be challenging to just live on a couch or share a hostel room with a couple people, some students have no other choice if they want to start the semester in time.
Fact is, that more and more young people want to study at universities. And the offer has not grown with this development.
The consequence develops from the easy economic rule of offer and demand: Because living space is rare, living space is expensive, so expensive as never before.
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