Amsterdam: Living in purpose-built student accommodation

From the interviews with non-European students in Amsterdam, a pathway of purpose-built student accommodation emerged. Out of 22 interviewed students, 14 lived in commercial studios rented through university housing (N=9) or self-organized in PBSA developments such as StudentExperience, OurDomain, or Holland2stay (N=14). For those students who transitioned from university studios to self-organized studios, a continuous studio-exclusive pathway was found. While previous chapters explained the dualization of the student housing market in Amsterdam structurally, this chapter offers explanations of non-European students' preference to live in this segment.

5.2.1 Studios, a safe haven for non-Europeans?

Most international started their first year in university-provided accommodation, with nine students having lived in studios offered by DUWO, DeKey, or commercial providers.

From the interviews, it became evident that for non-European students' studios are the

‘dream accommodation .'Less being a result of pull factors of students’ expectations for professional living and additional amenities (Verhetsel et al. 2015), their preference for studios can be seen because push factors deter students from accessing shared accommodation. Studios are desirable forms of accommodation because they offer i) security, ii) stability, iii) registration, iv) financial advantages, and lastly, v) comfort and convenience.

Security emerged as one of the main themes, as students in the private rental market are exposed to scammers or simply unable to get invited to room viewings due to the market pressure and competition. Choosing a well-known company can be understood as a strategy of 'making' market security (Bryne & McArdle, 2022):

I got referred to Xior from a friend. I just knew, okay Xior is legit. And are they good housing providers? I checked on Google. So yeah, I just saw the availability and

Being able to book directly from their websites offered comfort and convenience, especially if the place was already furnished and students were familiar with how the companies operate. Stability is another often implicit feature of international preference.

Studios offer campus contracts for students up until half a year after graduation.

Registration is equally as essential and a reported barrier when searching on Facebook.

Non-European students legally need to be registered at their address, and studios can provide registration for one person or a couple if the place is larger than 30 sqm. Studios, in many cases, also prove to be the financially most viable option considering the amount of space and privacy students get. Through the housing allowances, rents between €650-850 mimic those for rooms in shared apartments.

I got the housing allowance, and then it was like 500. Around 500. So yeah that' is affordable. And you get a studio. (Tiago, Equadorian - Amsterdam )

Especially for those who had unpleasant experiences in the rental sector, with friends living in PBSA, living in a studio was the end goal. A student from South Korea continuously applied for the Holland2stay studios for two years, and only after learning that she had to sign up multiple emails for the housing lottery could she get her desired accommodation.

Aside from a small number of cases where non-Europeans reached homeownership² During their study or renting an apartment long-term, the only proper linear pathway (Fang & Van Liempt 2020) for internationals can be found in the studio-exclusive pathway. This pathway captures the housing experiences of students who moved from university-provided studios into self-organized studios after their first year of study and can now stay there until the end of their studies. Therefore, from this sample, studio pathways present a clear exception to the common experiences of housing precarity and chaotic rental pathways in the shared housing sector for the individual student.

5.2.2 PBSA: private-led precaritization?

In the current climate of the Amsterdam housing crisis that plays out in the private rental sector for students, purpose-built student accommodation for non-Europeans appears as the risk-free accommodation that offers the best value for money. However, I argue that

2 An example of an exceptional pathway (Fang & Van Liempt, 2020) is when a working couple (one part-time student) from Brazil was informed that the landlord wanted to sell the apartment and sold it to them below the market rate, decreasing the monthly housing costs of the couple.

PBSA partly reinforces the precarious situation in the student housing market and showcases signs of exploitation as part of financialized (student) housing production.

Firstly, the accessibility of this segment is becoming increasingly difficult. After 2018, investment in purpose-built student accommodation in Amsterdam decreased, and no new projects were added to the city (Interview CBRE, 2021). The situation in Amsterdam has come to mirror that of the UK, where investment into PBSA has shifted from London to secondary or third cities, where demand is still present, but land prices and development restrictions are lower (Livingstone et al., 2021). As no new supply is added and demand for this housing typology in Amsterdam only increases, the access to studios has become strictly regulated. As of 2021, most studios from commercial companies are distributed through biweekly lotteries rather than directly bookable. Especially first-time students just arriving in the city cannot rely on this system, which can take months to receive offers.

In this sense, the ‘easy and quick fix’ that PBSA presented as an alternative for hard-to-access shared housing is slowly disappearing in Amsterdam.

Secondly, this segment builds on its monopoly in the rental market and is not always seen fit as the best provider for student housing, as universities have voiced concerns over indicators of exploitive behavior. Both the UvA and VU have reportedly stopped partnerships with commercial providers, who let students move into unfinished units or extracted unreasonable rent through their service charges. As a housing staff by the UvA reported:

The relative housing shortage is also a new phenomenon, you see that, because international students especially are in a very insecure position, they do not know their rights as tenants, they do not speak the language or know the legal culture here. That they are very vulnerable to being exploited so that's, unfortunately, something that we do see happening in the commercial housing market. (Interview UvA 2021- Amsterdam)

Most importantly, commercial providers have charged more rent than should be allowed according to the rent-point system. While service charges are a common way for commercial providers to ask for higher rents while keeping a regulated base rent for which students are eligible for housing allowances, Xior is currently involved in a legal case due to their rent setting. When Lin first moved into her studio from Xior, she realized that the

appraisal by the rent commission (Huurcommissie), they found that according to the point system, her unit is worth €644, not €865, as charged by the provider. Not only would this significantly decrease rents, but with the actual rent, Lin and other residents would be eligible for housing allowances, which would make a significant difference in the affordability of studios (Interview Student, 2022). Ironically, one could argue that it is precisely her rental security in having a campus contract from a commercial provider that has given Lin and other tenants the comfort out which they can request this rent appraisal, knowing they cannot be evicted. Therefore, the tactic of agitation (Waldron, 2022) and formal complaints in this study have only been used by tenants in secure purpose-built student accommodation.