More international students facing housing issues in Netherlands, from bedbugs to fraud

More international students are facing housing problems in the Netherlands, ranging from fraud and illegal subletting to bedbugs and leaks. The National Student Union (LSVb) received 263 requests for help from international students on its hotline this year, and worries that the problem may be even larger. “Students often don’t really know where to get help,” LSVb chair Maaike Krom told AD.

The LSVb received reports of several distressing living situations. One student said that they live in a small, windowless room with a hole in the wall, without an official rental contract, for €725 per month. Another said they’ve been living with a bedbug infestation for months and could not convince the landlord to do anything about it.

Several international students reported making substantial down payments to secure a room, only to find out that they had been scammed.

The Netherlands has a major shortage of student housing, making students easy targets for scammers and abusive landlords. International students are even more vulnerable to this because they cannot fall back on their parents’ homes. “It is very easy for scammers to take advantage of someone in an emergency, for example, when that person is at risk of becoming homeless,” Krom told the newspaper.

“Students often do not know exactly where to get help. We understand that educational institutions cannot fully support them, but as far as we are concerned, the need to do more to ensure that students are better informed about the rights they have,” Krom said.