'You don't have to be a certain type of person'

Your palms sweat as you check the house number once more. Then you ring the doorbell. An unfamiliar guy opens the door, you hear background noise, and then follow him inside as he invites you in. You shake a few hands, answer a couple of questions, and before you know it, you're back outside.

Then the long wait begins. On the train back, you receive a text. "Hey, it was nice to meet you, but we decided to go with someone else. Good luck with your house hunting!"

On average, Dutch students receive six such text messages before they score a room, according to SSH's website. Some people, such as bicultural students or students with a disability, are rejected more often. They have less chance of finding a room than most. Others find the auditioning process so uncomfortable that they give up on it altogether and try to find a place to live another way.

For this reason, SSH has decided to abolish the audiotining system, known in Dutch as hospiteren, in all student housing complexes delivered from 2022 onwards. In those buildings, the auditioning evening has been replaced by a viewing. The roles have been reversed: students looking for a room can come see if they like the place and the roommates before taking the room. But some do not bother doing this at all and just accept the room straight away, online. How does that affect the atmosphere in a student house?

New roommates are unaware of unwritten rules

"I've noticed that people in the house bond less," says Fred (22), an Interdisciplinary Social Sciences student. Fred is not his real name. The student asked DUB to use a fictitious name in the article so that he could "speak freely". Three years ago, he got a room at Opaal after auditioning. This was not supposed to happen: auditioning evenings were initially allowed in this room due to a system error. 

After that error was corrected, rooms started being allocated to the students who had been waiting the longest. According to Fred, the housemates always strive to be at home when people come for a viewing. However, many students don't bother viewing the room at all. They just take what they can get.

This may lead to conflicts in the house. "Everyone here contributes to things like spices, plastic wrap and washing powder. Recently, we had a housemate who didn't want to do that. He said he hadn't been told about that rule, but he didn't come for a viewing. That's when we would have told him. Things like this can become quite tense. Since the new system was introduced, we've grown apart a little, although things have improved over time." 

According to Fred, the roommates now hold meetings, and they are more on the same page. "The new policy isn't necessarily bad, but it does take a little more effort to learn to get along with each other."

A lack of excitement, connection and friendship

Francine (24, also a fictitious name) believes that social dynamics in her home are deteriorating. She does not want her real name to appear in the article for the same reason as Fred. Previously, the Master's student in Physics lived at Sterren with ten others. It took her about fifteen auditions to get it, but when she finally got a room, she had three years full of “excitement, connection and friendship."

However, she decided to leave this house because she “wanted something different”. She moved to her new home at Boabab without auditioning, but the atmosphere is different from what she was used to. She and her new housemates rarely eat together or play games. In her previous home, there were as many women as men, but now she shares the house only with women, which she finds unfortunate. In her view, "men bring more fun, and women bring more emotional depth. That creates a pleasant dynamic." For this reason, she supports the auditioning system. "It's the interests of one person looking for a home against nine who already live there. I would say that you should give more weight to the wishes of those nine."

SSH wants to equalise waiting times for rooms with and without audition

So far, three buildings operate on a waiting list basis: Opaal on Tolsteeg; Boabab, next to IBB; and Wisselspoor, near Amsterdamsestraatweg. Together, they account for 366 rooms out of over 8,500 managed by SSH. The housing association hopes to deliver 3,000 additional living spaces by 2030, which will fall under the new system. This includes the High Five at Utrecht Science Park, which will have 721 studios and 200 rooms.

The ultimate goal is to ensure that students wait just as long for a room with an audition as for one without. Once this goal is reached, people will be able to choose whether to audition. Currently, it takes longer to qualify for a room without an audition because the number of available rooms is much lower. According to the SSH website, students must be registered for 3 years to be eligible for a room at all.

The student housing provider has been receiving mixed reactions to the new policy, says press officer Joris van Eijck. SSH is also unable to say whether the new system has made housing allocation fairer. SSH will soon conduct a study into the houses without auditions, but it stands by its decision.

It's a really nice vibe

"SSH sees us as a bit of a model house," says Casper (22) as he gets ready to go for a run around Tolsteeg. He has been living at Opaal with five others for two and a half years. He didn't feel like going through an intensive audition process, so he preferred to just send a few emails and go for a viewing.

He considers his room a godsend, as he got it after only 1.5 years of registration. That's because his house is part of the Good Neighbour buddy system, in which SSH offers a 5-year contract to young people who have been homeless or under medical treatment. According to Casper, this didn't affect the "vibe" in the house, "which is really good".

The housemates often eat together and go out. He says this is an exception, though, as he knows other houses. "I would prefer it if people auditioned to move here, but I understand that it's not a fair system."

Nice not to have to audition

His roommate, Juul (25), also found it "very chill’ not to have to audition. "It always feels like you have to be a certain type of person." She registered with SSH when she turned 18. She is now doing a work-study programme as a pedagogical assistant at the after-school care centre in the neighbourhood. According to her, the atmosphere in the house is not close-knit, but pleasant. "Everyone does their chores and is nice to each other."

Baobab also has success stories. Tobias (26) lived with his parents in Amersfoort throughout his bachelor's degree in ICT at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. Although De Uithof was only a 20-minute bike ride away, he felt he had to "move out" of his parents' home at 24. He started looking for a place to live and was rejected six times before finding a room at Baobab. He didn't meet his housemates until the day he moved in.

They get along well. They don't do much together outside the house, although that "would be a good idea". Due to the long waiting list, many residents are a bit older and busy with their own lives. That applies to him, too: Tobias is pursuing a master's degree in AI.

*DUB's editors know Fred and Francine's real names