Two hundred new student rooms being built near IBB

Each of the flats in the ten-storey building will accommodate a group of six to eight students, and all of the student rooms will have their own bathroom with a shower and toilet. The flats will also feature a common room, a kitchen, and a balcony. Lastly, the building will have a laundry room and a large bicycle shed.

The rent prices haven’t been disclosed yet, but SSH Student Housing says they will be “affordable”. Residents will not qualify for rent benefits (huurtoeslag) because the apartments will not be self-sufficient. A remarkable feature is that the residences are not connected to natural gas. Instead, electric cooking will be required and the flat will be heated by a pellet stove.

The Opaalweg complex is set to be built in the proximity of the complexes on the Ina Boudier Bakkerlaan avenue. The question is whether the first will be a replacement for the latter, as the IBB will soon be demolished. Madelon van Gameren, spokesperson for the SSH, guarantees that one thing has nothing to do with the other. "We would like to expand and create more supply. Therefore, we have seized this opportunity”, she explains. In a statement announcing the construction, SSH Director Rob Donninger wrote: "If we want to realise the ambition of resolving the enormous shortage of student rooms in Utrecht in the coming years, then we desperately need locations like this.”

"Of course the SSH keeps its eyes and ears open for more new projects", assured VanGameren, noting that the SSH is also "currently working on new houses in the Utrecht Science Park.” These will in all likelihood be located in the green area between the Cambridgeflat and the Johanna building.