Many internationals left their place here head over heels this spring. As a result, the room supply has risen greatly, both on the private market and by housing corporations. For example, the Kamernet platform saw its offer increase by no less than 53 percent between March and April.

Student accomodation provider Vestide also sees a slightly higher number of rental terminations among the group of international students than normally during this time of the year. "The terminations occur mainly in the group of students who came to Eindhoven for a short-term study program and who would return home this summer anyway," according to Vestide’s spokeswoman. “We have been accomodating about 1200 international students. So far, 180 internationals have left already while most of them would originally leave in July. Every year, about 450 accomodations get a new tenant in the summer.”

Not all internationals leave early, Vestide notes. “In the new buildings on Lombokpad near the Berenkuil, a number of student units have been released early. But in residential apartment Aurora we see relatively few departures. This is mainly the location of (international) students who are a bit further in their program.”

For the shared housing elsewhere in the city that Vestide does not reserve for international students, there are also additional cancellations, according to the spokeswoman. "These rooms are therefore empty or have been empty for a while, because it was not as simple for the student and his housemates to organize viewings for his or her room because of the limitations." There were also restrictions for Vestide to make the rooms ready for rental again. “We are now restarting these kinds of activities, taking into account the corona guidelines.”

Forecast

Vestide cannot predict what the future will look like. The internationalization organization Nuffic had nearly 86 thousand registrations last academic year. But this September that number will probably be lower. The first signs already point in this direction, because according to the British research agency QS, more than half of the young people postpone their study plans to Europe for a year because of the corona virus. What does this mean for the student housing market?

Vestide: “What the influx will look like next summer is of course very dependent on the situation in the Netherlands. The National Government's road map to overcome the corona crisis currently looks favorable, but there is no guarantee. Normally, international students from all over the world come to the Netherlands and restrictions are not yet being lifted everywhere. So we follow developments closely.”