Student housing providers and organizations across the country are voicing concerns over proposed legislation that would cap short-stay rentals at 30 days and the impact it would have on investment in the Dutch student accommodation sector.

“The proposed changes would reduce our willingness to invest in new locations in the Netherlands," Frank Uffen, adviser to the executive board at The Social Hub, told Bisnow.

Since 2012, the APG- and GIC-backed company has invested more than €400M in eight mixed-use schemes across the Netherlands that are focused on attracting international students.

"Applying the regular rental regime to extended-stay accommodation would significantly affect the financial viability of these projects," Uffen said.

Investment in Dutch purpose-built student accommodation hit €1B in 2025, according to data from Achmea Real Estate, with CBRE predicting at the start of the year that this figure could grow by 10% in 2026.

That is on the back of strong growth in the number of international students in the Netherlands, from 30,000 in 2006 to 130,000 in 2026.

But that growth is threatened by the proposed new legislation, which could limit international student numbers, reducing investment in the sector. That could in turn push more students into the already overstretched traditional rental market.

“I think this additional regulation is restricting flexibility which is badly needed in the Dutch housing market,” Mark Kuijpers, senior managing director and head of the Netherlands, Germany and Austria at Greystar, told Bisnow. Greystar owns, develops and manages several large-scale student and young professional complexes, including OurDomain, but the impact of the cap on its accommodations would be limited, as most are rented out on residential rental contracts.

What The Bill Would Change

The proposed bill for “appropriate tenancy contracts” is designed to better protect labor migrant workers and students from potential exploitation while offering local students better access to housing. As of now, no maximum duration is stipulated under short-stay rental law. 

Initially created for holiday rental homes, landlords can offer monthslong rental contracts under the short-term rules that exist outside of the tenancy law and do not offer tenants full rental protection.

Under the proposed 30-day cap, any longer rental contracts would automatically offer full tenancy protection, while making it easier for municipalities to monitor housing providers’ compliance with the rules.

In addition, the proposed bill seeks to offer temporary rental contracts to students and migrant workers. These would not be open-ended contracts but time-fixed for migrant workers. International students are not immediately addressed.

According to the government, these temporary contracts would offer landlords more flexibility in terms of rentals, but student housing providers, trade unions and international organizations are worried that the changes in the proposed bill may do more harm than good to international and foreign exchange students. 

Greystar's Kuijpers points out the need for short-stay accommodation for migrant workers, expats and international students, who come to work and study in the Netherlands for a fixed period of time.

“If you would restrict it to 30 days, then you essentially take out that flexibility in the market,” Kuijpers said. “And I wonder where that pressure may go, as in the end, we only have a fixed stock of housing in the Netherlands.” 

Student housing corporations accommodated approximately 31% of the 127,200 international students, along with 61% of some 18,500 exchange students in 2025-2026, according to the National Student Housing Monitor from Kences, offering them guaranteed housing through their educational institution. 

The rest rely on alternative housing options, including the private sector and short-stay accommodation, exactly what the proposed bill would restrict. With a national shortage of approximately 20,200 units, and an average search time of five months, student housing providers warn that other options are spread thin and that a cap could make things worse. 

“We cannot manage that type of short contract. That's a simple answer. Especially for exchange students, it would make things very difficult for us,” Gijsbert Mul, the director of public affairs for Duwo, told Bisnow.

The largest provider of student accommodation in the Netherlands, Duwo is a nonprofit corporation that builds, rents and manages affordable housing, deploying three types of rental contracts for students: campus, temporary and short-stay.

While the campus contract, which allows students to rent a room or studio for the duration of their studies and up to six months after graduation, is the most common and used by local students, Mul estimates that 20% to 25% of Duwo's rental contracts for international and foreign exchange students are temporary or short-stay.

“We want to have protection for the tenant against misuse, and think that an additional agreement for a fixed amount of time would be the optimal solution,” he said.

Following an online consultation of the proposed bill, Kences warns that if it is implemented as it stands, student housing providers will not be able to provide sufficient housing for international and exchange students, in turn making the Netherlands less appealing to international talent. 

As such, Kences, of which Duwo is a member, is calling for the addition of an international rental contract that would cover all tenancy-related legislation, including rent price protection, and include a fixed, preset rental period — a maximum of one year — without the possibility of early termination, regardless of the student’s study progress. 

“We want to stimulate internationalization in the Netherlands and support the exchange between Europeans and students from other parts of the world. For that, you need a rental contract that is suitable for those situations," Mul said.

"If an international student comes here, and they have guaranteed housing, that is a huge advantage for them in a region currently facing a high shortage of housing. To us, it's only logical to guarantee housing for as long as the student is pursuing their higher education.”

Some in the student sector argue that there should be another form of temporary rental contract for students, depending on the type of student and the length of their studies.

“If you're an exchange student here for six months, then you should have a temporary contract for that duration," Daniel Cserep, president of the Erasmus Student Network The Netherlands, told Bisnow.

"If you're a full-time, international student, then having at least a two-year rental contract would be nice.”

He highlighted the mental stress and burden that international students face when searching for housing and said the cap would only heighten it.

A contract of up to one year would in itself fit well with The Social Hub’s model, Uffen said. The majority of its students stay for 10 to 12 months, typically linked to an academic year. The challenge for the company is that it does not offer a traditional rental contract but a fully furnished hospitality concept.

Student union LSVb, which is in favor of the cap, argues in its response to the consultation that short-stay rental constructions are being used to provide student housing outside of the tenancy law and that international students, who have no local network and little support system when they arrive, are the ones who end up paying higher rents and have less protection as a result. 

“The international student experience should not be about finding accommodation but actually experiencing the Netherlands and enjoying their time here, learning all about the culture while they pursue their studies,” Cserep said.

While student accommodation providers and associations grapple with what these changes could mean, Kuijpers wonders whether an additional international rental clause will only muddle things further.

“In essence, it's again another piece of regulation, and it will just bring more differentiation in the regulation in the types of contracts offered, making things more complicated in the end,” he said.