Of the ten largest municipalities in the Netherlands, Eindhoven saw the sharpest rise in its residents in 2022. Both students and first-time home-owners are keen to live in the city, but the shortage of houses and rooms is considerable. Last year, for every 100 homes, there were 109 home-seekers, says Astrid Crebas, an editor working on 5 Dagen for production company NTR .“In any discussion of the housing shortage, Eindhoven is an interesting case in point. It has lots of students and its knowledge workers include plenty of expats. What's more, the region is home to innovations in this field, just think of Living lab 040 and the development of tiny houses,” she says.

Student party DAS

On five consecutive days, live radio, including interviews and reporting, will be created at the heart of the campus. This evening, presenter Jo van Egmond and reporter Mirthe van der Drift (see main photo) will be talking with realtor Rieks van den Berg about owner-occupied homes and the growing number of expats in Eindhoven. On Tuesday, more airtime will be given over to student housing, and there'll be an interview with Julius Wildenburg, a member of DAS.

He'll have the opportunity to talk about how he and his fellow students have experienced housing issues, and he'll certainly highlight the fact that DAS is the only student party to have links with the city council. “This puts us in a position to take real steps. I also want to tell listeners about the 30-meter rule, the consequences of the radical increase in scale, and the new residential towers on the campus. Basically, I'll be recapping what has already happened and noting where there's still some scope for improvement,” says the Applied Physics student.

Hospi housing

Later this week we'll also hear from Joost Bokkers. With his company Hospi Housing, he is bringing back the landlady/landlord as a solution to the room shortage. “We'll be speaking to landlord Vincent Gerris. With his daughters having left home, he has offered a room to a student. On Friday, Monique Donker of Living Lab will talk about tomorrow's housing solutions.”

Whether a further topic of discussion will be homeless people, who regularly spend the night on the campus, Crebas cannot yet say. “Het program is still in development, that's the nice thing about live radio.”

5 Dagen live from the TU/e campus. Monday, January 16, Tuesday, January 17, Wednesday, January 18, Thursday January 19, and Friday, January 20, from 20.00 to 20.30 hrs on NPO Radio 1.