Ways of finding a room to rent in Den Haag / The Hague
September 7, 2011 4:16 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for ways to find a room to rent in The Hague.
I've tried Kamernet (and keep trying), expat sites, craigslist, bulletin boards, advertising on twitter and facebook, asking around... I've been at it since early june and still no luck. I've been in town for just over a week, my temporary housing is about to expire and I'm getting a bit desperate.
I've tried Kamernet (and keep trying), expat sites, craigslist, bulletin boards, advertising on twitter and facebook, asking around... I've been at it since early june and still no luck. I've been in town for just over a week, my temporary housing is about to expire and I'm getting a bit desperate.
Response by poster: to clarify, I'm here as a student until next summer, so my budget is quite limited. Everything on AirBNB looks quite tempting, but ultimately too expensive even for a short stay.
posted by svenni at 6:15 PM on September 7, 2011
posted by svenni at 6:15 PM on September 7, 2011
Disclaimer: I have never tried renting a room in the Netherlands, only an apartment, and I realise that my advice may be way off the mark. Apologies if so.
How much can you afford to spend? I see some possibilities on HuizenZoeker and Funda in the €400 - €600 range. They might be rooms you haven't seen yet.
Going under €400 gets you a lot of parking spaces mixed into the results, but increasing the search radius from 1km might help. Warning: a cursory glance shows that several of the listed properties are decoys ("we don't have any rooms available right now, but if we *did*, hey, they'd be really desirable, so why not go on our list?"), and also that the ones that look like really good deals (60sqm, 3 rooms, €450 a month sort of thing) have requirements attached that you likely don't meet.
If you can find another temporary solution, you might see the amount of property available increase as the month wears on, if the market in Den Haag works like the market in Groningen. Tenancy contracts always seem to start on the first of the month here, which distorts the ebb and flow somewhat. Admittedly, that probably does apply much more to apartments and houses than to individual rooms, but there'll be a bit of a trickle-down effect.
Finally: psychologically speaking, try to disregard the months of trying to find a place from elsewhere, especially if "elsewhere" was another country. The rental property market is really geared towards locals (everywhere! - I've been trying to move back to the UK from the Netherlands for a couple of months now with no success). So you've really only been looking for a week, and that's not long. Stay calm, keep breathing...
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 6:16 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
How much can you afford to spend? I see some possibilities on HuizenZoeker and Funda in the €400 - €600 range. They might be rooms you haven't seen yet.
Going under €400 gets you a lot of parking spaces mixed into the results, but increasing the search radius from 1km might help. Warning: a cursory glance shows that several of the listed properties are decoys ("we don't have any rooms available right now, but if we *did*, hey, they'd be really desirable, so why not go on our list?"), and also that the ones that look like really good deals (60sqm, 3 rooms, €450 a month sort of thing) have requirements attached that you likely don't meet.
If you can find another temporary solution, you might see the amount of property available increase as the month wears on, if the market in Den Haag works like the market in Groningen. Tenancy contracts always seem to start on the first of the month here, which distorts the ebb and flow somewhat. Admittedly, that probably does apply much more to apartments and houses than to individual rooms, but there'll be a bit of a trickle-down effect.
Finally: psychologically speaking, try to disregard the months of trying to find a place from elsewhere, especially if "elsewhere" was another country. The rental property market is really geared towards locals (everywhere! - I've been trying to move back to the UK from the Netherlands for a couple of months now with no success). So you've really only been looking for a week, and that's not long. Stay calm, keep breathing...
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 6:16 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
The Hague is a difficult place to rent, so I totally sympathise with the feeling of desperation. Give Expatriates.com a go if you haven't already.
ManyLeggedCreature: am I right in thinking Funda doesn't do room lets though? Only whole apartments?
You could also try asking around at some of the local hangouts - American Book Centre, O'Casey's. Or approach your university/college for advice.
posted by wingless_angel at 1:44 AM on September 8, 2011
ManyLeggedCreature: am I right in thinking Funda doesn't do room lets though? Only whole apartments?
You could also try asking around at some of the local hangouts - American Book Centre, O'Casey's. Or approach your university/college for advice.
posted by wingless_angel at 1:44 AM on September 8, 2011
ManyLeggedCreature: am I right in thinking Funda doesn't do room lets though? Only whole apartments?
Yeah, my cursory glance there may have been a little too cursory. The equivalent British site I've been using includes house-shares but often labels them very misleadingly, and I just assumed Funda was doing the same... also, it was late and the site's in Dutch. ;-)
Still (handwave, handwave), a small, cheap one-room apartment might serve the OP's requirements.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:44 AM on September 8, 2011
Yeah, my cursory glance there may have been a little too cursory. The equivalent British site I've been using includes house-shares but often labels them very misleadingly, and I just assumed Funda was doing the same... also, it was late and the site's in Dutch. ;-)
Still (handwave, handwave), a small, cheap one-room apartment might serve the OP's requirements.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:44 AM on September 8, 2011
As you've figured out by now, the start of the school year is a very hard time to find rooms. However, it might not be impossible, I like the advice wingless_angel gave. Other things to possibly consider: local supermarkets, free local papers and a couple of websites you might not have tried yet: easykamer.nl, opmijnkamer.nl, marktplaats.nl
Memail me if you need any help translating stuff to English or vice versa!
posted by Ms. Next at 2:11 PM on September 9, 2011
Memail me if you need any help translating stuff to English or vice versa!
posted by Ms. Next at 2:11 PM on September 9, 2011
Response by poster: In the end, I found a place through people I met here. Applying for everything on Kamernet landed me a few places I visited, but none of them worked. Asking around and talking to everyone about this did.
posted by svenni at 1:35 PM on October 8, 2011
posted by svenni at 1:35 PM on October 8, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by dhammond at 6:03 PM on September 7, 2011