Rental Costs Hits Amsterdam: Average Nears €1,000 per Mont

The cost of renting a room in Amsterdam has surged to nearly €1,000 per month, reaching an average of €948 last year, marking a substantial 39% increase from 2021, as reported by the room rental platform Kamernet. Similarly, in The Hague, room rents spiked by almost 32%, while in Breda, they rose by nearly 30%, positioning The Hague and Rotterdam as the most expensive cities for shared housing after Amsterdam.

Gert Jan Bakker from the tenants' advisory group Stichting Woon expressed alarm at the exorbitant prices, highlighting that although student rooms are theoretically governed by a point system to determine rents, many landlords fail to adhere to these regulations, posing a significant issue.

International students bear the brunt of these soaring prices, according to the student union Asva, as they lack access to social housing and alternative accommodation options. Nationally, the average room price escalated to €551 per month, reflecting a 17.6% increase from 2021, a period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in the 23 largest student cities, the surge was even more pronounced, with a nearly 23% increase compared to 2021 and an 11% rise from 2022, Kamernet reported.

New legislation mandating landlords to provide new tenants with an official rent calculation based on property size and shared amenities is anticipated to be a transformative measure, providing tenants with clarity regarding maximum allowable rents and recourse to a rent tribunal to demand reductions.

Recent cases, such as a tenant securing a rent reduction from nearly €2,000 to just under €500 for a 20 m2 room in Amsterdam, underscore the potential impact of legal interventions. Approximately half of the properties listed on Kamernet are offered by private landlords, with minimal change in this proportion over the years. However, there has been a notable decline in listings by real estate agents and a corresponding increase in advertisements posted by roommates since 2021.

Despite assertions of a shrinking rental housing market due to heightened rent controls and taxes, Kamernet observed a 4.3% increase in property listings on its platform last year. However, there was a substantial 30% drop in listings between 2021 and 2022 amid the pandemic.

Kamernet serves as the largest rental platform in the Netherlands, facilitating transactions between tenants and landlords, with approximately 60,000 properties, predominantly single rooms, advertised annually.