Finding a room in Nijmegen is not easy. Especially not for international students, say Eef and Steven Willems of the Verantwoord Woningbeheer Nederland (VWN) foundation. Thus, the two have founded the first housing platform specifically for foreign students: Guesthouse Nijmegen.

On the website, students can search for rooms from private landlords. Through mediation by VWN, landlords can offer furnished rooms with so-called short-stay contracts, or rooms that can be rented for a maximum of 12 months.

Student housing provider SSH& already offers rooms in Nijmegen in a similar way. The difference: following their short-stay contract, international students will be allowed to sign the same contract again with Guesthouse, but for a different room. At SSH&, students have to look for an alternative by themselves after one year. A solution that various student parties and the Nijmegen Labour Party were strongly opposed to, as it causes many international students to temporarily become homeless or to pay double rent. However, their opposition remained unsuccessful. In response, the Nijmegen Housing Coalition set up a couch surfing network for internationals.

Disadvantage

Why a website specifically for foreign students? Isn’t it difficult for all students to find a place to live? ‘That is indeed the case’, says Eef Willems. ‘But you should know that internationals are already at a disadvantage before even starting their search for a place. They don’t speak the language and only stay in the city for a relatively short time. Future flatmates are less keen on that: you can’t really bond with them.’

He points to the student rooms that are offered on Facebook, the place where many students find their housing. ‘Almost all the ads start with: ‘Sorry, no internationals.’ So you get shut out right from the start. We wanted to offer an alternative to that.’

Experiment

Thus, directors Eef and Steven Willems (not family, ed.) set up an experiment in September 2019. Foreign students were placed in houses with only other internationals or with Dutch students.

‘It may sound ambitious, but it’s simply necessary’

What turned out: mixed living with Dutch people was perceived negatively by all parties. In particular, the language barrier and the absence of bonding were major drawbacks. ‘Based on these results, you have to make a distinction. Either provide entire houses only for internationals, or, for example, one floor in a house,’ Steven explains. ‘That’s what we have done now.’

The housing authority is now working with Radboud University on the project. Some of the students receive an access code via the educational institution, which they can use to look for a room at Guesthouse.

Currently, the company rents out almost 150 furnished rooms to internationals. The goal: 1,000. ‘While it might sound ambitious, it’s simply necessary’, Eef states.

This article by Marieke Smid and Jacqueline van Ginneken was modified by the editors of Vox and previously appeared in De Gelderlander.

Translated by Jan Scholten