Students on the Amsterdam housing market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Amsterdam housing market is under enormous pressure due to high prices and high demand. Students play a significant role in this because the growth in the number of students, combined with a doubling of the proportion of international students over the past decade, has led to a greater housing shortage for this group and for all other lower-income groups. However, since this year, there is a decrease in the number of students. Every academic year, emergency measures are brought out again, such as the sixty temporary wooden cottages for international students in the Amsterdamse Bos in September 2021 (NUL20 September 2021).

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Who lives where?

Far from all students at Amsterdam educational institutions actually live in the city. A growing proportion continues to live with their parents, a national trend in which young people stay at home until the age of 24 on average. International students are the exception: in principle, they always live independently. In addition, many students settle just outside the city limits, in Diemen, Amstelveen, or Almere.

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Figures from the National Student Housing Monitor 2025 paint the following picture of students living away from home in Amsterdam during the 2024-2025 academic year:

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Students             Number living independently     Percentage living independently

WO and HBO                    49,700                                                  40.1%

MBO                                   6,690                                                   16.7%

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No exact figures are available for the HvA, but in the 2023-2024 academic year, one-third lived independently. Of the national figures, in the 2024-25 academic year, 72% of university students lived independently, compared to 38.8% in higher professional education and 18.8% in secondary vocational education.​

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In the 2024–2025 academic year, 35% of UvA students were international. At the VU, these figures have not been published, but two years earlier, the proportion of foreign students was 18.6%. The HvA had 4.4% international students in the 2024–2025 year. Together, this group of students comprises about 18% of all students in Amsterdam. Compared to the rest of the Netherlands, fewer students already live independently in Amsterdam (see above), because the housing market here is the most overheated. Combined with the high proportion of foreign students, who by definition live independently, relatively few Dutch students therefore live on their own in Amsterdam.

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How many students are looking for accommodation?

Based on the percentages above, the estimated housing demand amounts to:

• HBO students (HvA, AHK, Rietveld): approximately 10,000 living independently 

• WO students (UvA, VU): approximately 40,000 living independently 

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Together, this concerns about 50,000 students who want to live independently. A significant portion of them do not end up in Amsterdam itself, but in the region.

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The role of housing associations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Housing corporations rent out approximately 20,000 homes in Amsterdam annually, roughly half of which are through "regular rentals," including youth housing. Student housing is not included in this; it is allocated separately. It is striking that more than half of the allocation of social housing in Amsterdam goes to students.

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Short-term rentals are one of the largest categories, with over 6,000 rentals. This concerns almost exclusively international students. Corporations such as De Key and Duwo have contracts with the UvA and VU to house new international students for the first year (regular study) or two years (master's). As a result, the vast majority of these student homes go to international students. The allocation of regular student homes is more modest: 2,355 self-contained student units are rented out, and 1,244 non-self-contained units. ​​

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Construction projects and the commercial market

Despite large-scale new construction, the shortage remains acute. Between 2010 and 2019, approximately 14,000 student units were built in Amsterdam, of which nearly 5,000 were temporary. Since 2015, commercial parties have also entered this market with concepts such as IC Campus, The Student Hotel, Student Experience, Hotel Jansen, and Xior (NUL September 20, 2021). 

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Specialized residential complexes target international students specifically, such as Duwo's ​​Spinoza Campus in Southeast Amsterdam and De Key's straight project on Poeldijkstraat. Non-EU students can often afford to pay a substantial amount for both study and accommodation, making them an attractive target group for developers.

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In the private rental of homes, rooms and apartments are also rented out to students. Due to a number of measures regarding taxes and rent levels, some of these properties have been sold since mid-2024 and are therefore no longer available to students. For instance, the Affordable Rent Act of 2024 applies to private rental properties where three or more rooms are rented out. The maximum rent for these rooms is determined by this law; as a result, profitability for landlords has decreased, and some of them are resorting to selling.

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To rent out a dwelling with more than two rooms in this sector, a rooming permit is required. In 2022, 6,375 conversion permits were granted or were in the process (Meurs et al., 2022). Since then, there have been relaxations in the regulations regarding room rentals, so this number is likely to be around 7,000 now. This results in over 20,000 rented rooms. A portion of these will not go to students. Additionally, private rental homes for two tenants are rented out to students. No permit is required for this, so it is not registered and the number is unknown. It is likely that around 20,000 students live in this sector.

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Covid as a temporary turning point

The corona year 2020 brought a remarkable shift. Because the UvA, VU, and HvA did not offer exchange programs, they made 1,500 fewer housing units available to international students. Dutch students, many of whom had been forced to live at home for years, were suddenly able to find accommodation. However, as soon as the pandemic subsided, the old patterns returned (NUL20 September 2021).

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The conclusion is as simple as it is persistent: the Amsterdam student housing market remains structurally extremely tight, with international students receiving priority on a large portion of the supply via housing association contracts, while Dutch students increasingly continue to live with their parents or move to the region.

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Jaap Draaisma, June 29, 2022​

Update May 12, 2026

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Sources:

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      Kences Kenniscentrum Studentenhuisvesting. (2025). Landelijke Monitor Studentenhuisvesting. studentenhuisvesting.incijfers.nl. https://studentenhuisvesting.incijfers.nl/mosaic/lms/samenvatting  

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      Meurs, E., Bos, R., Van Ossenbruggen, E., & De Kwaasteniet, V. (2022). Evaluatie kamerverhuurbeleid Amsterdam. In Gemeente Amsterdam, Eindrapport. https://openresearch.amsterdam/image/2022/11/28/evaluatie_kamerverhuurbeleid_amsterdam.pdf

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      platform corporaties metropoolregio amsterdam. (2025). Tabellen Jaarbericht 2025. https://storage-customers.zig365.nl/afwc-ksp-web-hupo-portal-p-pub/user_upload/Bestanden_2025/PCMRA_01_TABELLEN_jaarbericht2025.pdf