How to find a hot apartment
It's the first question on many an expat's lips: How do I find a place to live in the city? The answers are discouraging – but it's not impossible. Laura Martz reports.
“Charming 2BR with balcony near Central Station”?
“Shady building with fitness centre and canal view”?
Dream on.
Housing is notoriously tight in the most popular parts of this crowded country, and that goes double for Amsterdam. People who want to live in the less popular suburbs or small towns have an easier time. Between real estate agencies and newspaper ads, they’ll likely find something.
But those with their hearts set on the choicest parts of the Randstad are likely to be in for a nightmare. The demand for rental housing in the Randstad’s best neighbourhoods – and all of Amsterdam except the unpopular southeastern suburbs – simply exceeds the supply, especially in the lower price brackets.
An agent from GIS Apartments in Amsterdam, which serves many foreign clients, says she has no magic tips. Her best advice: "Start early. It's very difficult."
Agencies: a well-heeled foreigner’s first stop
Using an agency – as relocation agencies do for their clients – is the best bet. Look under “makelaars” in the Gouden Gids, and choose one that mentions “appartementen.”
In theory, they’ll show you a selection of properties that meet your criteria. But finding something can sometimes take a while – "especially, of course, if you're in the vicinity of Amsterdam,” the GIS agent says. “Everyone wants to be in Amsterdam or nearby Amsterdam. (But) Rotterdam has the harbour, and a lot of people go to work there, and the Hague is the government centre,” so finding a place in those cities is hard too.
When you accept a place, you pay the agency a fee, usually equivalent to about one month’s rent. And that’ll probably be four digits - agencies often don’t have much to offer at the low end of the spectrum. And although the apartments they find for you are, in general, at least ones you’re legally allowed to live in, that’s not always the case.
“When I moved in I didn't know the system,” says one Internet engineer who rents a flat in Amsterdam’s red light district. “I assumed that any contract I signed, especially one arranged through an agent, would be fully above board. I didn't know anything about the subsidised housing system and waiting lists.”
But the person he rents his place from kept himself on file with the city as the legal resident of that address. Now that the landlord has decided he wants to move back in, the tenant – in fact, a subletter – has little legal recourse.
The way to save yourself that kind of hassle, the GIS agent says, is to go to a registered agency. The unregistered majority are likely to happily accept a finder’s fee for an apartment you're not legally allowed to live in.
Agencies are often geared to people with relatively generous budgets - like American corporate transfers whose companies willingly shell out for washing machines, bathtubs and other luxuries to keep them feeling at home.
An exception is Students for Students, which specialises in cheap student rooms and has branches in Utrecht, Leiden and Amsterdam.
Even they admit that for those on a low budget, the outlook is grim.
Students for Students’s Niels Brandsma confirms that finding cheap housing is "extremely difficult at the moment" in all three cities. "It's hard when lots of students come at once starting a new year."
Woningcorporaties: if you have five years
Many of the cheapest places – below about EUR 500 a month – are in the hands of woningcorporaties (housing corporations). That means if you’re Dutch or have a residence permit you can register to get a house through them.
And then – if you’re applying for a choice place, such as one in the centre of Amsterdam – forget about it for a few years. The Stedelijke Woningdienst Amsterdam (the city’s housing service) says registrants can expect to wait more than five years before they accumulate enough seniority to be first in line for a place. The exceptions are people willing to live in the infamous Zuidoost (southeast), where there’s less competition.
Much public housing is restricted according to income, household size and other criteria, which means the owner has to apply for a permit for you - if you qualify. Tenants in Zuidoost can skip this step, unlike those in the rest of Amsterdam.
Newspapers, bulletin boards, and the informal circuit
In the short and medium term, people on low budgets in popular cities are pretty much stuck trying their luck on the informal circuit.
"I suggest they tell everyone they're looking, maybe put up an advertisement in the newspaper, at supermarkets, in the Via Via," Brandsma says.
"People who are not students usually want more than a room, and in Amsterdam it is extremely, extremely difficult" to find a cheap apartment at all without the six- or seven-year city waiting list, he says. "I don't know what to tell them."
There are some privately owned low-priced apartments, but they’re subject to the same restrictions as the ones owned by institutions – and if the authorities catch you living in one you don’t qualify for, there’s a good chance they’ll kick you out.
Prospective tenants not going through registered agencies should ask at city hall whether they're allowed to live at a certain address before renting there.
“If the government or Stedelijke Woningdienst finds out you’re renting a place you’re not qualified for, you will be evicted, in a matter of weeks or months, and sometimes there are some legal actions," says the GIS agent. The owner will likely be in more legal trouble than you are, but you'll be out of a house.
As one Brit said, “Having the nicest properties in the city centre as subsidised accommodation takes a whole chunk of the rental price scale out of the market and makes it impossible to find anywhere. It's also wide open to abuse and extremely confusing. Subsidised accommodation should be to help poorer people, not to give rich people a cheap apartment they can rent out for a huge markup.”
And on the private market, there are no guarantees of what you’re getting into. “In Amsterdam the relocation company showed me outrageously expensive or scarily claustrophobic flats,” said Virginia Lowes from the UK. “Via Via had cheaper places, but of course no one has checked them out first. Some old guy with hats on the walls and an odour of rotting fish locked the door behind me when I went into his flat. When I told him over the phone that I didn’t want to take the flat for six months, he screamed down the phone that I couldn’t do that, and he wanted me. And there was a stinky old stoned guy whose flat looked like a bunch of rats had been living there.”
Word of mouth: The local way
In the end, the way most people find housing in the tightest markets is tired but true: by asking around.
“I traded,” says one Dutch multimedia producer. “It’s a really good way to find a house.” People moving in with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or facing a new financial situation because of a job change, often want to trade, transfer or sublet their apartments.
“In my case, the landlord was the father of the girl who lived in the house, and she had a big argument with her father,” she says. “He wouldn’t give her permission to trade.” So she took her father to court. In court, the producer agreed to pay above the coveted EUR 200 monthly rent provided repairs were made. “I had to invest a lot of time, but now I have a really nice apartment in a really nice neighbourhood.”
In short, deciding to live in Amsterdam – or indeed, any place in the world that so many people find so charming – is not for the faint of heart, and not for the casual visitor. Heavy housing-market dues must be paid. Eventually, most people find something, but not before racking up plenty of war stories.
So steel yourself for a long wait and many moves, possibly from hotel to housesit to someone’s couch. And arm yourself with information from your city’s housing department about what options they recommend in your city, and ask them what your rights are. For instance, no landlord can kick you out on the spot – you have to be several months behind on rent before they can file for an eviction. This kind of thing is important to know, because a timeworn tactic of Dutch landlords is sending groups of toughs around to scare unwanted tenants away.
Most Dutch people, if pressed, agree with Brandsma. If you want to live in a desirable market, he sighs, "It's best to buy something." |
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