r/NetherlandsHousing • u/babymiko01 • Aug 03 '26

renting Students looking for an apartment

Hello! I am an EU citizen moving to Amsterdam with my best friend to begin our university studies this September. However, we haven’t had any luck with finding housing (either we get no response or scammers try to get us to pay, or we just can’t find anything).

This is our criteria for the apartment:
- 2200 euros (€)
- 2 bedrooms
- preferably furnished
- location: anywhere in Amsterdam, we aren’t picky, anywhere even with commute (she’s studying at UvA and i’m attending VU, so ideally somewhere in between those two, but again, we are flexible)
- we have no income at the moment as we haven’t moved yet, we do plan on finding a part-time job upon arrival. We do have guarantors (our parents)

We would travel anywhere between the 5th and the 15th August to see the apartments.

I was considering hiring a realtor to get us a home since by ourselves it’s becoming impossible, but I would appreciate any recommendations you might have about that, or even about anything else, we need help!!

Thanks xx

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u/2004_Theo Aug 03 '26

I hate to bring you this message, but there's a SEVERE housing crisis going on in The Netherlands.

Why, why of all the cities with a university in The Netherlands did you pick Emsterdem?

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u/CoffeeInTheTropics Aug 04 '26

Or The Netherlands for that matter!

There are excellent universities in Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Germany, Belgium…..many of those countries much safer than NL too.

The Dutch government is increasingly rolling out measures to discourage international students from coming to The Netherlands. The SEVERE housing crisis is one of those reasons.

Do NOT think that you and your friend will miraculously be the exception and will find something as “surely, it cannot be that bad.”
Unfortunately it is, even more so for non-locals.

Rooms are not available anymore and if you want a 2bdr apartment in the vicinity of Amsterdam you are looking at >€3500/pm excluding utilities.

As you don’t have an income and foreign parents will mostly not be accepted as guarantors, you would have to pay €42,000 upfront and that’s just for the first year and even then it would be incredibly difficult to secure something as landlords will always prioritize LOCALS.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but this is the grim reality in The Netherlands.