# Housing: I see affordable rooms for rent but where are the apartments?



## MeanderingThoughts (Jul 12, 2014)

Hey Everyone!

Long time lurker, first time poster. Just want to say thanks to everyone for all the different conversations going on here they have been really helpful.

Housing in Amsterdam is a huge question and Ive been reading about it for a few months, and am still unsure how it forms in reality, rather than just in theory.

First about me: I am a recent university grad living in Canada with a portuguese citizenship. My wife is also a recent university grad. We are both writers and are looking to move to Amsterdam. We have about $7,000 Euro saved to get us by for a few months while we look for work. We live a very modest lifestyle-- content on just enough to get by paying basic bills so we can feee up time to write. We are interested in living in the Inner Ring. 

We realize we will need to rent from the free market. When we look for places we see two options:
1) either really fancy looking apartments ranging from $1500-$3000 Euro or
2) affordable rooms for rent at $400-600

But it seems silly for us each to rent a room at $500 with another person, but I can't seem to find any apartments from the $900-1100 range. Is our best bet to try to each rent a room from a local at a cheap price? I was thinking of trying out agencies but all their listings seem very posh. 


Thanks!


----------



## Jpry (Jul 24, 2014)

7000 euros will be gone very quickly if you plan to move to Amsterdam. Finding a job that is related to your academic degree would also not be easy as I presume you don't speak any Dutch. 
Don't forget that The Netherlands is a small country, you don't need to live in Amsterdam, even if that's the place where you are working. There are countless villages around the city and it might be easy to find what you are looking for if you expand your search area a bit. When you are settled and earn a good salary, then you might be able to afford a house or apartment in Amsterdam.


----------



## zenkarma (Feb 15, 2013)

MeanderingThoughts said:


> ...We have about $7,000 Euro saved to get us by for a few months...We are interested in living in the Inner Ring...but I can't seem to find any apartments from the $900-1100 range.


As another poster commented - €7,000 won't get you very far in Amsterdam. You'd need significantly more than that to stand any chance of becoming established there.

You want to live in the inner ring but only have a budget of 900-1000 a month? This is why you can't find anything. Amsterdam's inner ring is not only the most expensive place to rent/buy an apartment in Amsterdam it's probably the most expensive place to rent/buy an apartment in the whole of the Netherlands with the possible exception of The Hague. Amsterdam apartments in the rental price range you're looking at in the inner ring simply don't exist.

I think you've set your expectations unrealistically high and don't have the financial means to live in the centre of Amsterdam.

The other poster's suggestion of looking further afield, perhaps further out from Amsterdam's centre where much more affordable housing can be found is a good, sensible suggestion after all the transport links in and around Amsterdam are excellent and affordable.


----------



## highwind (Aug 10, 2014)

Like the previous comments. I would warn you that 7,000 Euros for 2 people can run out very quickly in the Netherlands even with average living style.

For 2 bed room apartment in the inner ring, I would say it's always 1,500+. My friends just rent out a boat house for 1,800 euros in the inner ring, not including agency fee. 

You can live in the outer ring and bike. If you can find an employer that gives you a free OV card (for transportation), living on cheaper cities nearby and commute by train is not a bad idea. It can save you 200-300 euros/person a month.


----------



## LindaT (Sep 9, 2014)

Im afraid E7K will only last you about three months here. The cost of living is very high in comparison to Germany. If you want to live on that kind of savings for a while you might have to live out in the sticks and travel to work. I am a writer and to be honest I couldn't imagine trying to make a living here unless I was JK Rowling! There is only one real writer's group that I know of and that's the English Bookshop in Amsterdam. Trying to find like minded people of that genre is very difficult. Personally I would try living in the UK because the language is what you are used to and also it is much easier to communicate there and there are loads, I mean loads, of writing groups in the UK. I can't wait to get back there next year. Don't head for London, try the cheaper areas like the south west and Cornwall or Hereford. Even the north east of England. All are very beautiful and if you are into fiction there is no better place. The scenery is much nicer too. (Well I think so!) Holland is not an easy country to live in if you have no connections here. This is advice from a Brit whose British friends have all returned to the UK because they had enough. I have lived here almost 15 years. My time is coming to an end.


----------



## cschrd2 (Oct 31, 2011)

Living in the Netherlands is not cheap, however surely not more expensive then any other bigger city. Think if you agree to live in the suburban area you can get some smaller apartments below €1000€/month, utilities €150€/month, health insurance 130€ pp/month. Public transportation is quite reasonable in price and performance. Food will set you off at about €100/week (looking at cost and avoiding alcohol and smokes).
The biggest problem with finding a residence is having to show a fixed income. You can get a pretty decent overview via funda.nl and choose "huurhuizen".
Good luck.


----------



## namivan (Nov 17, 2014)

Hello!

As previous posters said, be very careful with that budget. But!
It is possible to find things in the 1000-1300 area, but it will take time and energy. Meanwhile, you need to stay somewhere in the city. Do not rent anything from afar, there are way too many scams in on the market in Amsterdam. Ignore any correspondence or ad that mentions Western Union.

Here's how we did it: First of all, since housing is expensive, Dutch people like to rent out their apartments (for a reasonable rate) while they are on holiday. Luckily, we moved to Amsterdam in August, so we could get these "holiday rents" at 3 different places for 2-3 weeks, while we comfortably had time to look around.

Note: as soon as an affordable flat goes online, it's usually rented by the next day. Write to them as soon as you see the ad, and try to be as nice and relatable as you can during your meeting with them - they can choose from a dozen applicants the one they liked most - it's the human factor!

Check websites like elynx.nl for available rents, but you can also put up your own ad here for free, actually that's how we found our place.

Check out marktplaats.nl - this is ebay and much more for the Dutch - you can buy your bike here as well (recommended, save a lot on public transport and it's the way to go anyway), and check out long and short term rents. Use google translate if you need to.

There are also a couple of interesting listings on the Craigslist Amsterdam forum, but beware, this place is also full of scams. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Be realistic - there isn't a flat for 500 in Amsterdam.

Good luck


----------

