Finding a Room in Nijmegen

Finding a house in Nijmegen requires a bit of work and can cause some trouble if you’re not cautious enough. Here are some tips to follow in order to successfully find a place to stay:

  • Start searching as early as possible.

  • Useful websites gathering housing offers:
    • Kamernet
    • Funda
    • Hospi Housing
    • airbnb
    • It’s really worth spending some time creating your profile on these websites and also buying a premium accounts. On some of these pages, the only way to actually contact landlords is to be a premium user. A good-looking profile will also improve your chances of finding accommodation.
  • If you have a Dutch student id, you can try finding accomodation via Student Housing Association, SSH&:
  • Facebook groups (more prone to scams):
    • Try typing “Housing Nijmegen” or “Nijmegen international student housing” in Facebook search bar.
  • If none of this methods works, you can also book a hotel and search from Nijmegen:
    • Guesthouse Vertoef has a longstay offer that is not as expensive as regular hotel prices.
  • Avoiding rental scams:
    • Agree only to offers that provide an online or in-person viewing before any payment has been finalised.
    • It is strongly recommended to have a regular contract signed by both sides.
    • The safest option is to purchase a room via external organizations like Kamernet (not through direct bank transfers).
    • Deceivers may want to contact you using Messenger/WhatsApp. It looks usually like this:

    image

    Then they use a second account, mostly on WhatsApp, where they provide you with photos of a fake room and a suspicious-looking contract. If everything is done using unofficial channels and they don’t agree to a viewing or insist on meeting in person (especially since many people are looking for flats from abroad), then you’re most probably dealing with scammers.

  • If you’re looking for a room from abroad and have someone close to Nijmegen, you can always ask that person to go and do an in-person viewing instead of you. Maybe you are already in contact with some lab members? You can always ask them whether they know someone who would be willing to do you a favor.