- Student
- 18/03/2025
Room shortage not set to improve in coming years
Tight housing market tests students’ patience
Students leaving the parental home sometimes have to have quite some determination to find suitable housing, or settle for less. This won’t be changing anytime soon, although the billion-dollar boost from Project Beethoven is making a difference.
A lot is happening in the housing market in the Brainport region. The new Affordable Rent Act took effect a little over six months ago, and with the 2.51 billion from Project Beethoven – the investment in public facilities, housing, mobility, and talent development – there’s plenty in the till in terms of subsidies and funding.
For example, 245 million euros will be freed up for the realization of 17,000 housing units and 2280 additional student housing units throughout the Brainport region, although it will take years before students can reap the benefits of this. Meanwhile, development and construction plans lag behind the growing need for housing in the city and region.
Update
According to the national student housing platform Kences, which looks at the final building plans for each municipality, Eindhoven had plans for 1012 student units by 2024. Of these, 735 were realized in the form of three new residential towers on the TU/e campus. A unit can be any form of housing, but for students it’s often a room, studio, or apartment.
In the student housing covenant, the municipality, together with other partners, has expressed the ambition to build an additional 3410 student units by 2028. TU/e is also a member of this covenant. Universities cannot legally build housing units, but are allowed to collaborate with developers.
Scale jump
Currently, the municipality is about 1,500 student units short. Because of the scale jump, a lot of extra ones will have to be built. The National Microchip Talent Strengthening Plan, aka Project Beethoven, has set the goal at 4600 additional student housing units by 2030, for the entire Brainport region.
“We’re focusing on extra construction to accommodate increasing student numbers,” explains Mariska, senior housing advisor at the municipality. “We’re not thinking about students who currently rent expensive units but those who are looking for affordable ones, possibly because they live at home and have long commutes. However, we do not want the situation to get worse for the group that is not living well now.”
Beethoven
The 245 million for new housing from Project Beethoven will be made available through subsidies, says alderperson for housing Mieke Verhees. “After the summer, there will be a dedicated office for this. We’re currently taking stock of which projects are suitable in this context.” Developers can claim a subsidy of an average of 33,000 euros for non-self-contained student units (with shared facilities).
Project Beethoven is also aiming for growth and an influx of international master’s students, who do have slightly different housing needs than Dutch bachelor’s students. “They generally have a little more to spend, are a little older, can claim rent allowance, and don’t mind living independently,” says the senior housing advisor. “It’s also a group that’s generally more willing to settle outside of Eindhoven than Dutch students. In Helmond, for example.”
Frustrating
New construction projects continue to lag behind, Verhees observes. Projects are delayed in part by rising prices of raw materials and labor. “But we also see that 20 percent of the projects of social housing corporations are delayed by objections of local residents through the Council of State. That’s their right, but it’s frustrating. Especially since we haven’t yet had a project that didn’t get through.”
The municipality is now trying to look at how they can speed things up. For example, she currently sits down once a week with housing associations. “We’re now trying to do that with property developers as well.” The municipality also wants to make better use of the existing housing stock by encouraging home sharing, shared living, and private room letting.
Affordable Rent Act
A factor in the room shortage is the Affordable Rent Act that came into effect last July. Because of the new law, more and more rental properties are being put up for sale. The municipal rent teams in the Netherlands, including those in Eindhoven, are also noticing this. They receive more reports of students who have to leave their homes because they’re being sold.
Verhees doesn’t have an overview of this because it involves private property. “We do hear signals, but they’re mainly about properties owned by slumlords, whose rent was already high for residents and where little is being done about maintenance.”
Landen in Eindhoven
Settling in Eindhoven
That it can sometimes be difficult for students to find housing is evidenced by the story of Built Environment master’s student Margarita (last name known to editors). She lived in a single room during the past orientation week with her partner, who was also starting at TU/e. It had been offered to them by the brother of the owner of the Airbnb they stayed in after arriving. She didn’t have a contract.
After two weeks, the couple moved into a 15-square-meter attic room, with a monthly rent of 1,400 euros. Margarita needed an address to register with the consulate. Meanwhile, she was looking for something else, but that didn’t go as smoothly as she had hoped.
Karaseva is an international student from Israel; her husband is from Russia. “It was problematic. I think because we are foreigners, students, and a couple. Landlords prefer to have working people in their apartments anyway, rather than students, because the former provide more security. And there are plenty of them.”
Despite supplying many documents of themselves and those of their parents, the couple was still unsuccessful after 2.5 months of active searching and after many viewings. But then, in early October, they were lucky enough to be assigned an apartment in Haven, the three recently completed residential towers. “It’s perfect. It’s affordable, new, and on campus.”
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