Finding a place to live is not easy, especially for international students, who are often searching from abroad. They cannot simply stop by the advertised room to check whether it is actually available for rent.

Universities need to do more to warn their international students about the many scammers operating in the housing market, says Evy Kras, president of the Dutch National Student Union (LSVb), in a phone interview. “For many students, the warnings come too late.”

More complex

The LSVb runs a housing hotline for international students with questions about renting in the Netherlands. According to a new report, the union received 263 questions and reports over the past year. It has identified a trend: the problems students encounter are becoming increasingly complex.

“Many of these problems are interconnected,” Kras says. “For example, students may be subletting illegally without a rental contract and be unable to reach their landlord when the sink is broken or when they have a bedbug infestation.”

Scams are also becoming more sophisticated, she says. “It’s becoming much harder to tell what’s fake and what’s real.” Fraud is especially widespread on Facebook. International students spend so much time triple-checking advertised rooms that it leaves them “distrustful and stressed,” according to the union.

Some scammers invest a great deal of time and effort into making their stories believable. They even provide references: contact details for a supposed tenant who, if asked, assures the student that everything is legitimate. Sure, go ahead and pay the rent in advance. And the security deposit. And then the “insurance” fees... 

It is often only after the third payment request that the student contacts the LSVb to ask: is this actually legitimate?

Police

Victims often lose hundreds of euros, and the police do little to address the problem, the report states: “Cases are treated as civil matters or are considered outside the jurisdiction of the Dutch police because the students responded to room advertisements while they were still abroad.”

What can the police do? “It can indeed be difficult to prove fraud,” Kras says. “It would help if the police kept statistics on housing scams. But better information and awareness are also needed.”

Educational institutions should inform international students about the housing shortage as early as possible, she says. Many institutions are already doing so, warning prospective students: don’t come to the Netherlands if you have not secured housing.

Kras believes that message may have some effect, but some students remain determined. “If they really want to study here, the housing shortage won’t stop them.” And that makes them vulnerable to fraud.

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.