SOS! How do I find a student room?
Even though there is still a lot of uncertainty about how the next academic year will be organised, a lot of students will be looking for a student room (or “kot” how we call it in Belgium). Did you know that no less than 7.500 students rent a student room in our metropolis? Therefore it is quite a challenge to find your perfect room. We gathered some tips & tricks to find a great room in these strange times.
Where can I find a student room?
Facebook pages, websites of private landlords, through the university/college… where to start? STAN, the city of Antwerp and the Antwerp institutions of higher education joined forces to gather all student rooms on one trustworthy website: Kotweb. Thanks to the Quality Label that all the properties on this site have, you can find your dream room with confidence in between the more than 5.000 student rooms, studio’s and appartments.
Quality Label? What does that mean?
There are three different coloured labels: green, blue and red. It won’t come as a surprise that green means that the room is in great condition and meets the living quality and fire safety standards. You should definitely look for rooms with this label! Rooms with a blue label have already been checked once, but the owner has to do a couple of small, non-urgent adjustments. After half a year the city of Antwerp will do a second check-up on these properties. You better avoid the propieties with a red label, they don’t meet the quality and safety standards and will be closed if the deficiencies aren’t resolved.
The perfect room for you
Your first year in Antwerp? Check on what campus your classes will take place and decide how far you want to live from your campus. Don’t you mind moving by bike or public transport? Or do you prefer doing everything by foot? On Kotweb you can pick your campus and indicate how many kilometers you want to be away from it. The next step is choosing the type of accomodation and then you can look through the offer according to your budget. A “kot” with a shared bathroom and kitchen is cheaper, but not ideal if privacy is your number one priority. In that case it’s better to go for a studio or ask a friend to share an apartment with you.
Make an appointment
In orde to know what you want and what you’ve got to watch out for, you have to see the room in real life. Only then you’ll know if there’s a lot of street noise, if a lot of day light enters the room, if the neighbourhood appeals to you… Maybe the pefect image on the internet doesn’t correspond to the actual situation, this can help you advance in your search for the true room of your dreams.
Use the Model Lease!
Don’t want to worry about the fine print of a lease? With the Model Lease that is used by 70% of the Kotweb owners, you can’t go wrong.
Still some unanswered questions?
Drop by STAN or contact the person responsible of your educational institution.
- University of Antwerp: Goele Descamps & Anne Van den Bogaert, T +32 3 265 48 72
- AP University College Antwerp: Liesbet De Maeyer, T +32 3 220 59 15
- Karel de Grote University College: Egon Huygen en Alev Nathalie Doruk, T +32 3 613 13 03
- KU Leuven Antwerp: Chloé Lenaerts en Tim Bleukx, T +32 3 201 18 19
- Thomas More Antwerp: Inge Van Abbenyen, T +32 3 432 19 89
- Maritime Academy Antwerp: Sylvia Adriaenssens, T +32 3 205 64 30
- Institute of Tropical Medicine:Patricia Braat, T +32 3 345 54 84
