Living

The core of the student experience is a nice house. The housing shortage is a national problem, but it certainly hits students very hard. In 2020, approximately 1500 student rooms in Groningen were lost as student houses were converted into studios. The student housing that will be built in the future, will be in the form of studios on the outskirts of the city. We want the conversion of student rooms into individual studios to stop and we want to make it possible again to create new student houses by issuing conversion permits. We also want to preserve the student culture, where student houses have the possibility to choose their own roommate.

Students who rent in Groningen unfortunately often have to deal with excessive rent, overdue maintenance, fraud with energy labels, and sometimes even intimidation by the landlord. We call for doubling the budget for the landlord inspection, an expansion of the rent team, and we want landlord permits to be revoked more quickly when there is serious abuse. Student & Stad also wants to see an end to the loophole called “short stay,” which allows landlords to meet fewer obligations and charge any price they want.

To combat climate change, we must all do our part and the municipality of Groningen will have to build sustainable housing. Student & Stad wants at least 2000 homes with greenery and a GK (common area) on the Zernike Campus. We also want to start developing and building as soon as possible at various locations in and around the city. We facilitate temporary housing, such as houses on the water, and in places where nothing will happen in the near future. We are also sticking to the principle of a shared neighborhood, which means that depending on the composition of the neighborhood we are looking at issuing different permits.