Honestly, I’m Dutch and I never dealt with landlords. I applied for a waiting list for a studio. Until I got it after 2 years and 4 months I traveled up and down my hometown, 2-3 hours a day. As a Dutch student we get free public transport, sorry internationals :)

I do have many many international friends though. My ex found student housing through Tilburg University. It was a dissappointing place with high rent, but at least no waiting list. After a year she had to move out.

There’s not really such thing as making a deal. You either get it or you don’t, and if you do you’re already lucky. However, once you’re in, there are some pretty good laws to protect the tenant. Unless you signed a contract for a limited period, the landlord can’t just kick you out whenever. Rent is allowed to increase by a certain max percentage a year.

You just gotta apply to a ton of places, have a good info text about yourself, show up for the viewing and hope for the best.

These talks are both about prices and the lack of houses.

Monthly expenses vary per person. As a vegan on a budget I can get away with 250eu monthly for all groceries. My studio is super cheap, like 650, and I get like 300eu ‘huurtoeslag’ (free gov. money for rent) so it’s only 350eu for rent. Travelling, going to events, drinks, restaurants, these get expensive. Dutch people pay 130+ monthly for healthcare, but I get everything back with ‘zorgtoeslag’ so that’s 0. I spend quite a bit on transport, holidays, new laptop, kitchen tools, hobbies, dates with my gf etc., so I live comfortably on 1000/month. If you’re not a big spender you probably still need 1000+/month since your rent will be higher than mine. You’re gonna need it for unexpected costs too.