Sleep, cook, eat, study, shower in one place? No!

Studio life was not for me. At night, after a long day of studying, I came home to an empty house. I would then cook or reheat up leftovers. At night, after reading or watching a movie, I went to sleep under the hum of my refrigerator, which stood almost next to my pillow. In the morning, I would wake up in my office-kitchen-bedroom and the routine would start all over again. During exam weeks, when everyone was busy and I was home a lot, I felt trapped within the walls.

A year ago, I moved into an old house in the city centre. Our house is far from perfect. My room has single glaze windows and in winter it’s 12 degrees inside. Sometimes the dishes pile up so there is no room on the countertop to prepare breakfast. And despite all our vacuuming, once in a while a mouse walks across the living room. Still, this is a thousand times better than my studio. That’s because my current house has something my studio didn’t: other people.

It was a relief not to live alone anymore. Now I see friends without having to plan meetings, and I have someone to chat with about my day. There are also practical advantages. When I have exams or come home late, someone else can cook. And someone else can set the mousetraps.

Taxpayers jump in so that students can cough up higher rents

I’m not the only one who is happier living withroommates. Time and again, research shows that students in rooms with shared facilities are healthier and happier (in Dutch). Plus, they take up fewer square metres per person. This is not only more sustainable but also helps tackle the housing shortage as more people live in the same amount of space. Yet, mostly studios are being built (in Dutch) and the proportion of multi-person housing has been falling for years.

Is it a financial consideration? It seems so. Maximum rents for social housing–which most student housing falls under–are set using a points system. The number of points determines the rent charged. Points are awarded based on different features. Private amenities earn extra points, meaning you can charge higher rents for studios than for shared housing. Furthermore, the occupants of studios can apply for housing benefits. These are significant amounts (in Dutch) for a student budget. The housing benefits make studios about as expensive as student rooms in shared houses. Taxpayers jump in so that students can cough up higher rents. Thus, studios are more lucrative for landlords. In the trade-off between finances and student welfare, students lose out.

The solution is simple: build more shared housing and maintain the current supply of rental rooms. That doesn’t mean implementation is simple. There are many different stakeholders and both legal and policy adjustments are needed to make more shared student housing feasible and financially viable. But we can’t look away because as it stands now, not only the current generation of students but those in the decades to come will be forced to live in housing that makes them less happy and is less sustainable. Until the studios are built, things can still change. Perhaps student well-being can win after all.