Housing Guide

First of all: Most of the rooms will start appearing in May since all the final year BSc students will get their MSc course response around that time, you can still find rooms before this of course and you should start looking now if you want to avoid major headaches (trust me, it’s though).

That being said you essentially have 3 options when it comes to sources that I’d recommend with the upsides and downsides:

- Facebook groups

You will find most private offerings here (aka not offered by a company) usually rooms in a shared house. Most of the rooms are posted here and the competition is really high, so expect to check every hour throughout the week if you want to find a room in rush time. You’ll find one eventually, but you need perseverance. Of course a large open market means a lot of scammers. If you want to avoid them I have some general guidelines and tips in the second part of this guide.

- Maastrichthousing.com

This is the official housing site supported by the uni. They have a one-time fee of 35 euros. They just changed the model from a weird signup-time-related ranking system to first-come first-reserve so it will give more chances to EU students to get houses through it. (Previously if you were international you got +4 years to your account pushing you to the top of the list.) This platform both has private and business offerings as well as uni-offered UM Guesthouses (with a 1-year contract) and close to zero scams since everyone is verified. Since they have a new model I can’t say how easy will it be to get a room through them but you can list the rooms without an account so you don’t necessarily need to sign up.

- Housing Agencies and Student Hotels

There are a bunch of legitimate and less legitimate agencies offering housing for students as well as student “hotels” where you can stay. You can find out about them by just looking them up on Google. One way of finding rooms is by just calling them or coming to the city and literally knocking on doors until someone gives you a room. Student “hotels” that I know about include Nido and Sorbonnelaan, they offer studios for a bit higher prices but I haven’t heard anything bad about them so far aside from the price. (Nido can be cheaper tho)

There are other housing sites like Kamernet but they are useless and expensive. Not to mention if you forget to cancel your subscription and you just decline the transaction/use a one-time virtual card they will still bill you and if they can’t reach you they will just send a debt collection agency to your house.

Here’s the how not to get scammed part:

General guidelines:

• ALWAYS request a viewing!!! If the landlord can’t arrange an (online) viewing for any kind of made-up reasons —> SCAM
• NEVER send any kind of personal document (passport/ID) until you are certain that the place is legitimate. I’ve encountered numerous situations where scammers tried to use the passports/IDs of other individuals to impersonate them.
• If something seems too good to be true, it is
• Always ask for the precise address and the landlord’s name so you can verify them (you can see the process in the pro-tips section)
• Cross-check photos, many times scammers upload photos from different places, if they don’t seem to match you can rule the place out without wasting time on it
• Always ask what’s included and what’s excluded from the rent price, sometimes utilities, taxes, and the internet are excluded and they can get expensive.
• Ask for the rent period, sometimes it’s limited, sometimes it’s a 1-year contract, sometimes it’s undefined.
• Ask for and SIGN a rental contract BEFORE transferring ANY money. (Reservation fees are non-existent, if someone asks for them —> SCAM)
• If you are messaging on WhatsApp and the landlord’s phone number is not a Dutch phone number (or Belgian in some cases) —> SCAM

Guidelines for Facebook ads:

• First of all, check the profile. If it was registered in the last few years, that’s a red flag
• Check the profile picture, uploaded photos, and public posts. Most of the scam profiles will have stock photos/stolen pictures of people on them.
• If the main location of the landlord is not in NL —> SCAM
• You might find other people pointing out that the ad is a scam in the comment section

Guidelines for housing agencies:

• Housing agencies usually have some kind of fee if they are not the owner of the place. Try to avoid these since they can get pretty pricey. If this is too expensive it’s likely a scam.
• Always look up the company before interacting with them. Legitimate businesses will always have online reviews.
• If the company is not based in the NL —> SCAM
• If the company doesn’t have a Dutch phone number —> SCAM

Pro tips:

• In the NL you can look up the owners of properties for a small fee to be certain that the place is owned by the landlord. (I heard stories of people viewing in person and the “landlord” disappearing afterward so I think this is worth it once you're certain you got the place.) Read more here: https://www.kadaster.nl/producten/woning/eigendomsinformatie
• If you can’t go to an in-person viewing and you want to make sure that the place is legitimate there’s a startup called Uni-View in Maastricht that will take care of the viewing for you by sending a local to your viewing. Of course, you can always opt for online viewings too. Read more: https://www.uni-view.nl
• If you get an unfurnished room that’s perfectly fine. We have a couple of second-hand shops and a thriving second-hand market in Maastricht so you can find furniture for cheap if not free. Of course, you always have the option to order from IKEA as well as from Heerlen.
• Action is the best store ever for broke students. It’s essentially eBay.com in a physical form. If you need any household supplies, utilities, appliances, bike parts, small furniture, or bedding check them first. They’ll be the cheapest and they actually have adequate quality for the price.
• For any other information check out https://mymaastricht.nl. They’ll have the answer for everything you are looking for.