You’ve made the decision to come to Maastricht! That’s great, now you just need to find somewhere to live. Your biggest question will probably be “Where do I start searching for my future room and what options do I have?”
Our Room Search section can help you answer this. There are many different places to start your search. The options include Student-Housing, Housing Corporations, Agencies, Antikraak, and Social Media.
We should tell you that the student housing market in Maastricht gets busier and busier every year. It is much easier to find a room in May-June (and even July, though be cautious of starting your search then) compared to in August and September. If you are looking later then be prepared to sub-rent or stay in a ho(s)tel for a few weeks.
There is a crossover period from the beginning of the introductory week INKOM (the second to last week of August) until halfway through September. This is when the old students haven’t left yet but all the new students have arrived. The housing market is very busy at this time, and it can be almost impossible for a new student to find a place to live. We recommend looking for a room earlier, or booking a room in a ho(s)tel until places become available later on in September. You can also check on the Facebook page Sharing is Caring to look for couchsurfing opportunities. Don’t worry – everyone finds a room eventually.
However, hopefully you will receive your offer before this busy time and be able to find a room easily! In this situation, there are other things you should consider when choosing a room.
First, location. Check where your faculty is to get an idea of the areas you should be looking at when searching for accommodation. You can easily locate all UM and Zuyd buildings on our map (under the category ‘other’), and this should be a good starting point when it comes to choosing a neighbourhood. Both universities have their faculties spread throughout the city, as opposed to in one central campus, but a good chunk of them are in pretty central locations. Nevertheless, a basic tip is that you at least try to find accommodation that’s on the same side of the river Meuse as your faculty.
A good idea is to look at how far away your place is from the city centre. Check the cycling time on Google Maps, as this is the most accurate measure of how far away you are, even if it looks a long distance to walk.
Still, all of these tips should be taken with a pinch of salt. In an ideal situation, you would intuitively want to live close to where you study. However, the city isn’t massive, so you’ll very rarely have to cycle for more than 20 minutes, even if you’re not staying in the closest nieghbourhood to your faculty. Especially now, during Covid times, it’s arguably better to get a place you actually like, even if it’s a bit further from campus. One last thing to bear in mind is that the closer you get to the city centre (where many faculties are located), the higher prices tend to be. So it’s up to you to find that sweet spot between location, price, and everything else.
To help get you started, we’ll list some popular student neighbourhoods:
- Brusselsepoort
- Mariaberg
- Emmaplein
- Wyck
- Statenkwartier
- Scharnerweg
Next, “How can I be sure that the place is of good quality, safe and worth its price?”
A good guide of this is the Keurmark. This is a certificate for quality and safety backed by the Gemeente (municipality) and other partner organisations. There is more information about this on the next page.
Don’t worry if you can’t be physically present in Maastricht for a viewing. There are options for you which are explained over the next few pages, including agencies and student housing co-operations.
All your questions should answered on the next few pages. However, if you have any more problems, please get in touch with us via email, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. If you have specific questions about your contract, the Housing Helpdesk is there to help: they’re a social organisation set up specifically to help tenants (including UM and Zuyd students) to solve problems related to the rent of their home. They offer free (legal) advice and information, and will, if needed, deal with problematic landlords personally. They’re also super nice! So don’t be shy and reach out if you need help or are unsure.
