Students are finding it increasingly difficult to find accommodation in university cities because of a combination of rising rents and a shortage of available homes.

Data analysis by NRC showed that the number of available student rooms has plunged by 30% in a year and more than 40% in Amsterdam and The Hague, two of the cities with the largest student populations.

Private landlords have been selling up following the introduction of the Affordable Rents Act a year ago, which limits how much homes can be let for based on a points system previously used for social housing.

At the same time asset taxes, which include second properties, have increased, prompting small private landlords to pull out of the market and sell their rental flats to owner-occupiers.

Fewer than 5,800 small student homes – defined as less than 25 m2 in floor area – were available in the second quarter of 2025, according to NRC.

High demand

The high demand from students also means that despite the affordable housing legislation, the average rent for a student room has increased by 10% to €38.50 per square metre.

Students in Amsterdam pay an average of €979 a month for a room while in Leiden and Wageningen rents have gone up by around 19% in the last year. The average rent is now nearly €700 a month, according to studio rental platform Kamernet.

Maaike Krom, of the national students’ union LSVb, said the shortage of accommodation was having an impact on students’ prospects. “For young people going to live in student rooms is an important step in their development,” she told NRC.

“We see a lot of students having real difficulty finding a room. That’s bad for their future outlook and for the accessiblity of education.”

Johan de Bie of Kences, an information centre specialising in student housing, said there had been a sell-off of student rooms in university cities in the last year.

“The lack of accommodation means students sometimes can’t get on to the course they want, which means higher education becomes less accessible,” he said.

Restrictive rules

Not all the largest university cities have followed the trend: The Hague has seen a 44% drop-off and availability has fallen by more than 35% in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven. But in Groningen there has been a 1% increase in student accommodation and Arnhem has seen a 14% rise.

Another issue highlighted by Kences is that some municipalities have banned property owners from dividing up larger houses into bedsits or studios because of concerns about overcrowding in suburban neighbourhoods.

“Often the criteria for shared housing are too strict as well,” said Krom. “Some housing corporations set an income threshold of more than €27,000. How many students earn that much?”

The long-term solution is to build more housing, but planners are lagging behind: Amsterdam needs another 16,000 student houses by 2030, but just 980 are due to be completed this year.