What is it like to live at home (again) as a student?
The housing shortage is high and that means that moving out of your parents’ house is not a given. Folia asked three students what it is like to live at home (again).
The proportion of Dutch students living away from home has fallen from 53 per cent to 44 per cent in 2023 since the introduction of the loan system in 2015, according to figures from housing organisation Kences. Photographer Sara Kerklaan visited three students living at home. Is it their own choice or would they rather move out?
Jim Haasnoot (22), works at Coffee Star on Roeterseilandcampus and lives with his parents in Voorhout
“At 19, I left home for the first time to study in Delft. Several moves and sublets further, I have been living with my parents in Voorhout again since this academic year.”
“It is very demotivating to continue looking for a room. If you respond to Facebook calls, you often don’t even get a response. I also don’t qualify for many houses because they are looking for 25+ people, recent graduates, or women.”
Abel Koenen (19), studies social geography and planning and lives with his parents in Amsterdam
“My room is separated from my mother’s study with a door that has milk glass in it. It is so thin that you can hear everything.”
“So I can hear my mother typing, I can understand her word for word when she is on the phone and I can even hear the cruesli falling into a bowl downstairs during breakfast. But my room is otherwise great. I have my own bathroom, toilet, TV at the foot of my bed and it is spacious. You can even pacing nervously there.”
Lot van Oekel (19), studies Cultural and Literary Studies and lives with her parents with her sister in Amsterdam
“This is the house I was born in, so I don’t know anything else. I’m ready for a place where I don’t always have to eat with my parents.”
“I think it would be nice to experience living with peers. Although sometimes it feels like a dorm here too. I got an app at one point: “Can you leave the bathroom cleaner than you found it? Can we please pay attention to this?’ And then with pictures too!”
