Housing providers: ‘Students with roommates are happier’

According to Kences, the sector organisation of social student housing providers, when it comes to loneliness and stress among students, it's not good that the share of students renting rooms has dropped from 58 to 52 percent over the past eight years. At the same time, the share of students renting private studio apartments rose from 12 to 23 percent.

Getting along 
Students who rent rooms are significantly happier, claims Kences based on further analysis of the recently-published National Student Housing Monitor, in which 75 percent of the respondents renting rooms indicated that they get along well with their roommates. As for the students living by themselves in a studio, only 42 percent said they got along well with their neighbours. Students in studios have a higher chance of ending up in social isolation, Kences' Director Jolan de Bie emphasised last autumn.

More lucrative
Nevertheless, more and more studios are being built because they are far more lucrative for landlords. Thanks to the rent allowance given by the Dutch government, landlords can charge much more from their tenants.

If students living in rooms were eligible for the same type of financial compensation, there would be a better balance between the cost of renting a space with shared facilities and that of renting a studio, not to mention that it would be more appealing to build rooms.

Kences has also expressed its concerns about a decrease in the number of rooms with shared facilities being rented out commercially. Last year, these rooms jointly accounted for 53 percent of the available housing.