The waiting list for student accommodation will more than double in the next two years, a report by housing monitor Kences has said.

Some 22,000 students were unable for find a room in the last academic year and this is set to rise to at least 50,000 in 2024-2025, Kences warned.

Some 18,000 new accommodation units have been planned until then. ‘Only if these are actually built can the number be limited to 50,000,’ Kences director Jolan de Bie told Trouw.

The dramatic increase in demand is partly caused by the coronavirus pandemic, De Bie said. As well as first-year students looking for a place to live, second-year students who stayed home when universities closed last year are looking for a place of their own.

A recent review of student numbers by the education ministry also showed that the student population will grow by 100,000 students more in 2024-2025 than was previously assumed.

Foreign students from the EU, whose number is expected to increase as they seek alternative destinations to the UK in the wake of Brexit, will have even more trouble finding accommodation and may be advised to study elsewhere.

Student organisations have complained that the ban on dividing houses up into rooms is not helping. The measure is aimed at avoiding abuse by landlords but, argued student union LSVb chair Ama Boahene, ‘the need for rooms is more pressing than ever. And this makes it worse still.’