In Ghent, the average student is now paying 544 euros per month for a student room. The price has risen 22 euros in only one year’s time. ‘Students are really worried. The city of Ghent wants to focus even more on affordability and help increase supply,’ says alderman Filip Watteeuw (ecologist/Groen).
Ghent estimates that there are 42,500 students in digs in the city. That means just under half of all students live in a student room. For a second time the city authorities have now organised a large-scale student survey among 7,400 students at the start of the academic year. Their aim, to find out more about the quality, price and location of student digs in the East Flemish capital. In Flanders student digs are invariably referred to as a ‘kot’.
The city contacted 60,000 students. Over 12 per cent completed the questionnaire. Ghent wants to use the data to get an overview of the situation. This is not easy, because not all students live in student digs. Ghent estimates that 12,000 youngsters share a house or flat.
The average price for a room now stands at 544 euros per month. Rooms provided by large student accommodation providers are the most expensive (621 euros), those offered by colleges and the university the cheapest (423 euros). The difference amounts to almost 200 euros.
‘Students really lie awake about the cost’
‘The price has risen more than inflation. We see there was a sharp increase coinciding with the corona pandemic’ says alderman Watteeuw.
‘For 40 per cent of students in digs, the price is too high. For an equal number of non-scholarship students, it is an argument not to go into digs. Students lie awake at night. Ghent is a student city and wants to remain so. We want to ensure more is on offer and increase affordability.’
Most youngsters in Ghent live in student digs in a traditional student house (43 per cent) or share a house or flat (27 per cent). The number of students in large new projects operated by property developers is growing (14 per cent). The remaining students in digs live in rooms provided by the university or colleges (11 per cent) or take a room in somebody’s house (1 per cent).