Two students renting one room together: an interesting measure to combat the lack of living space in Nijmegen. Housing cooperation SSH& is starting a pilot of the possible solution this month at its complex Boeckstaetehof at the homonymous street.

In the complex close to the Graafseweg, 116 three-room apartments have already been transformed into 348 student rooms in 2017. Ten of those rooms – fairly regular at 18 square metres each – are going to be occupied by not one but two international exchange students starting this month. One half has been equipped with bunk beds, the other half with singles. The students are going to share the rent, between 230 to 250 euros per month each.

‘Gone quickly’

Almost American-esque, one might think, where college students sharing a single room on campus is a not an oddity. The Nijmegen housing provider is not aiming at students who value their privacy, but specifically at students who want to save money and don’t have an issue sharing a room for a semester.

‘We are trying to accommodate the students who need a room most urgently’

The request for the rooms is high, according to an SSH& spokesperson. ‘The International Office has sent out an inquiry among international students earlier this year and coupled roommates with each other. The rooms were gone quickly,’ says the SSH& spokesperson. ‘The roommates are not only people who don’t know each other. They can also be friends or couples.’

Housing crisis

Should the pilot be a success, more rooms and complexes might follow the same model. Through this, SSH& wants to combat the housing crisis. And there is a dire need for solutions: between January and July, almost 5300 students signed up for a room in Nijmegen with the housing company. Last year, 5200 students were looking for a room in the same period – at the time, almost a doubling of the student room seekers.

Just as in 2022, 4700 students registered for the first time. Others have rented with the provider before but were looking for a new room. At the same time, around 260 rooms for students looking for a room for the first time have freed up in the city over the past three months.

Measurements

The ‘two students, one room pilot’ is not the only measurement. Over the last years, six administrative offices of SSH& have been transformed into living spaces. Additionally, complex Mariënbosch in Nijmegen-Oost has been equipped with an emergency shelter for students. One studio has been remodeled as a sleeping space for international students, who share the kitchen and bathroom.

To help students who live too far away from Nijmegen, SSH& has also extended its travel urgency rule. If someone lives more than two hours by train away from the city, he or she has priority when applying to some complexes. The entire year, this applies to SSH&’s Vossenveld complex, but until the 1^st of November, Hoogeveldt and Leeuwenstein are also included in the priority rule.

Students are also allowed to participate in SSH&’s lottery system for a room from the 1^st of June onwards instead of July. ‘We are trying to accommodate the students who need a room most urgently,’ says the SSH& spokesperson.

One thousand

To fight back the housing crisis, the municipality and SSH& have agreed years ago to add one thousand new SSH& student residences between 2021 and 2030. In the short term, there will be 230 new student residences: 80 in the Winkelsteeg and 150 directly on the campus of Radboud University.

Other building projects are the old GGD location at the Oude Groenewoudseweg, the Duet residential tower at the Hezelpoort, and the Spoorstraat in Lent.