Netherlands accommodation help

#1

Can anyone living in the Netherlands offer any advice? I’m trying to find student accommodation (for my son) in the Netherlands but not having much luck. He has joined lots of Facebook groups and we are regularly searching online: roomspot, kamernet, pararius, directwonen, easykamer. I’ve also emailed what I think are agencies: Smart Wonen, Twentsvast, Vlug Wonen.

We’re travelling there next week so I’m trying to arrange some viewings. Does anyone know if any other agencies to contact or websites to try?

(@moderators I’ll ask you to remove the town once this thread is done if that’s ok?)

#2

I found getting rental accomodation in the Netherlands quite tough, and imagine a town like that may suffer from the same difficulties as the one I’m in (i.e. not Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague or Utrecht). There weren’t many properties available to rent full stop, yet loads being bought and sold, I know that people are far more credit averse here.

I found the expat groups on Facebook and Pararius were my main sources for this sort of thing, but don’t know if your town has something specific about it that makes it easier. There’s Marktplaats & Funda which are worth trying too.

Sorry I can’t be more helpful, looks like you’re doing most of the necessary things, but best of luck to your son!

#3

never been there but most Dutch cities are pretty brutal, when I moved to Leiden I ended up going over for a day in mid august, calling up some agencies in the morning and viewing whatever rooms they had available. ended up with something pretty weird and overpriced but in a good location.

how long’s he staying for? worth trying to get a rolling contract if you end up with something not ideal as things will get easier in a few months and you’ll have more options to find somewhere nicer

#4

Thank you, I will give those a try. There are two universities in the town so I’m hoping something will come through. There are lots of ads to apply to but he’s not getting much in the way of responses (the messages he’s sending are good).

#5

Yeah I’m really hoping we can get some viewings next week. Are there any other agencies you know of? He’s there for four years, though I imagine he’ll likely move each year unless he gets really lucky.

#6

can’t think of any, Pararius gives a pretty good overview iirc but there are probably some that they don’t cover

#7

Yeah, Pararius and Funda are the biggest aggregators, but there’ll be some smaller ones who may not have a presence on there.

#8

Thank you @ma0sm and @shrewbie

@moderators please could you remove the two mentions of the town name?

#9

I edited the two references, but mods might have a way of deleting the edit history too

#10

done!

#11

This one too

#12

done!