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CBRE: Room shortage continues to increase in most student cities

Expected new construction of student housing insufficient to compensate for decline in total rental supply

October 3, 2024

By Irene Martini

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Irene Martini

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The Ministry of Spatial Planning and the knowledge centre for student housing Kences concluded in recent weeks that the shortage of rooms among students will decrease in the coming years due to a combination of more supply and less demand for student accommodation. Real estate advisor CBRE published a report today that shows the opposite. The report shows that students largely live in regular rental properties and that the supply of these will decrease sharply in the coming years. According to CBRE, the future pipeline of student accommodation that the ministry is talking about will have to be doubled in order to eliminate the shortages in student housing.

The research report shows that just over half of students in the Netherlands live on their own. The type of housing among these students is diverse, with 33% of students living away from home living in homes owned by private landlords that are not specifically intended for students. This type of housing in particular has a greater chance of disappearing from the supply in the long term as a result of fiscal measures such as the stricter box-3 regime, the tightening of the requirements for non-independent rental and the expansion of the regulated middle segment.

Thomas Westerhof, Head of Residential Investment Properties CBRE: “Students are competing with workers in this increasingly tight housing market, which means they are often at a disadvantage in their search for these scarce rental properties. Although more student rooms are being added, the expectation is that the supply on the regular market will decrease to such an extent that the housing situation in most student cities will actually worsen in the coming years.”

Figure: Dutch students divided by living situation

A stacked bar chart showing the breakdown of student accommodation in the Netherlands by different housing types, including housing associations, private landlords, private operators, and living at home.
Source: CBRE Research, CBS, Kences, edited by CBRE Research

Shortages are increasing

In cities such as Amsterdam, Groningen, Tilburg and Rotterdam, the cocktail of the shrinking regular supply on which a large group of students depend, together with the limited supply of new student housing, is threatening to create an acute shortage of student housing in the short term. The situation for students will also worsen in smaller student cities such as Haarlem, Zwolle and Den Bosch with a very limited supply of student housing.

In order to reduce the pressure on the student housing market somewhat, the government wants to limit the influx of foreign students, now 13.7% of students, into Dutch study programmes. However, it remains to be seen whether this measure can provide relief for the housing market in the short term. Because universities still benefit so much from international students, both financially and from an academic perspective, they would be shooting themselves in the foot with a smaller influx.

Westerhof emphasises: “The shortage of student housing will only increase due to the loss of supply in the regular rental sector. To effectively address this shortage, two things are important: building more rental homes across the housing market and facilitating favorable preconditions for renting out and building student homes. In particular, a revision of the WWS points system for non-independent homes and removing barriers to (temporary) new construction can alleviate the room shortage.”

Read the full viewpoint about student housing in the Netherlands here.

About CBRE Group, Inc.
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2024 revenue). The company has more than 140,000 employees (including Turner & Townsend employees) serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE serves a diverse range of clients with an integrated suite of services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.

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