Idealis: all first-years housed by 1 May

It looks as though Idealis will achieve its objective of allotting a room to all the first-years on its list before 1 May. Last year, it failed to do this by a narrow margin, as dozens of those who signed up were still waiting for a place to stay by the target date. This year, however, the student housing agency will receive last-minute reinforcement: the new Rijnveste with 336 rooms will be delivered in April. According to Jan Harkema, Head of Housing of the student housing agency, the waiting list would then be emptied: ‘Before 1 May, we will have more than enough to meet the demand.’ In 2012, almost 1500 first-year students signed up for one of Idealis’s rooms, and 1200 of them went on to study at the university. However, not every student ended up with a room from Idealis. ‘Some students prefer to continue living at home for a while, others sublet a place somewhere else, or manage to get a room in another way,’ says spokesperson Corina van Dijk. There are also first-year students with an Idealis room who sign up again straightaway in order to chalk up waiting time to increase their chances of getting housing later. They are therefore on the ‘waiting list’, but are not really looking for a room. Van Dijk: ‘We can see that the demand from first-years for rooms which are vacated declines in the course of the year. At some point the response dries up completely and then we know that all the first-years actively looking for a room have already found one.’