Foreign Students in Germany are in Urgent Need of Accommodation

As the housing crisis worsens in Germany, international students are desperately in need of more options. 

A huge number of students in Germany, both local and international, have been having trouble finding accommodation options for the new academic year due to the ongoing student housing crisis in the country. 

According to local media, this crisis has affected international students who chose Germany as their study destination this year. 

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has conducted research showing that Germany is now the third most popular study destination for international students.

The German higher education institutions have welcomed over 367,578 international students in the 2022–23 academic year, which is indicated to be a huge achievement, as it is an increase of five percent from the previous year.

Given this huge number, most students are trying to find a place to stay while staying in Germany, but it has been challenging due to the lack of apartments in the country.

Thomas Schmidt from Social Affairs on the General Student Committee (AStA), which represents the interests of students at German universities, said, “Some students are able to rent a place using a financial guarantee from their parents, but it’s especially difficult for international students because they often aren’t able to provide such a guarantee”.

It has been reported that a study by the Eduard Pestel Research Institute claims that there was a shortage of over 700,000 apartments nationwide earlier this year.

In order to help students who need accommodation options, the Student Association in the central German city of Göttingen has rented out a hotel to provide availability for students. They have given them these rooms at a reasonable price and will have a reduced price for the first weeks of the semester. A one-bedroom apartment’s expense in the city centre of Munich is around €1,367.

The German government, mainly led by Olaf Scholz, has pledged to have 400,000 apartments built each year after taking over the office at the end of 2021.

“We want to make it clear that we are committed to achieving our stated goals. Our goal is to increase the number of domestic housing units to this level,” Scholz said at the first Alliance Day last year. 

The government hasn’t met the target so far; experts think that this target will not be met any time soon. According to the Macroeconomic and Business Cycle Research Institute, this target will fail by an even larger margin next year.