Why We Sucked at Renting an Apartment in Amsterdam

It’s been over nine months since we moved into our little Amsterdam apartment. The apartment that I was going to write a post about with some cute pictures of the travelly elements we have decorated it with, but apparently I’m a really lazy person and will never get around to it

Aaaannnnyway, now that the initial shock of renting an apartment in one of the most touristy cities in the world has died down, I feel a little less fragile about discussing just how insane it can be. For people who don’t read the blog regularly (why not? how rude!), or who only skim-read the title of the post – I’m not talking about short-term holiday rentals here. I’m talking about real-life-move-into-a-place-and-put-a-deposit-down type places. For short-term rentals, please refer to my indignant post over here and stay out of my neighbourhood, pretty please. Also, for you Londoners out there, I understand that what I’m about to say may not even scratch the surface of what you’ve had to go through in your own apartment search. And for that, I think you will eternally have our collective pity. 

Ok, let’s get down to the screwups that Scott and I made when we moved to Amsterdam, shall we?

We didn’t allow enough time to find a place

We turned up, with our suitcases and Basset in tow, and gave ourselves a grace period of one week to find somewhere to live. As in, we had paid for accommodation for one whole week and no longer. Yeah, I don’t know what the hell we were thinking. Not only was our temporary place out in the sticks, which made it extra hard to travel to view potential apartments, it was ludicrous to think that we’d find a place, sign an agreement and move in within a week. That whole process, including the exit and cleaning of any previous tenants, can take up a month.

We didn’t know anybody in the city

This turned out to be a bigger problem than we’d imagined. Many people move to new cities without knowing anyone and simply start to make friends after they’ve settled. But because we didn’t know anyone here, we had no contacts of anyone who could rent their house/apartment out to us. Which leads me on to my next point…

Drinking away my housing problems (drinking isn’t the answer, kids)

We had to fork out a ridiculously large “agency fee”

Because we didn’t know anyone who could have been a potential landlord, we had to use an agency to find us a place to live. Unlike many countries, the agencies in the Netherlands don’t charge the landlord for listing an apartment (well, maybe they do, but I haven’t heard about it). Instead, they pass the full charge of their work on the renter. They will typically charge one month’s rent as a fee upfront, which goes straight into their pocket and which you’ll never see again. This is on top of any deposit you have to pay, so it’s a big lump sum all in one go. *sobs* 

We didn’t realise just how competitive the housing market was

We had assumed, naively, that we would turn up to a viewing and be shown around an apartment by the agency on our own. After our first viewing where approximately ten other people showed up, elbowing each other out of the way to talk to the agent and try and get the contract signed, we realised just how wrong we were. If you want to rent a place, you have to pounce. Or else try and rent somewhere so undesirable that no-one else bothers to put an offer in. 

This face? This was me, during our apartment search #craycray

We didn’t have jobs/visas/paperwork for the Netherlands

We had literally just moved to the country. Before we did anything else, finding a place to live was the most important thing to tick off our checklist, but of course agencies and landlords want proof of income, bank accounts, phone numbers and paperwork. We had nothing. Which meant we had to bully an agency into giving us a rental contract after providing far much more documentation than was necessary, as well as offering a larger deposit. 

We rented an apartment that was up for sale

I say “was” but in fact it still is. It seems fairly common here, as house prices are very high, that many people will rent out their apartment while trying to sell it so that they can afford to still keep paying the mortgage but move out themselves. This means that, almost every week, we have to clean the apartment and leave for a set period of time so that viewers can come and look at it. Not only does this bug me on a security and privacy level, but also because it disrupts our day. 

Someone loves having a balcony – but doesn’t want to have to live out there

We have a dog

Although cats rule the city and live not only in apartments but also restaurants and shops (mainly because of the mouse problem that old buildings and canals inevitably bring), landlords seem wary of dogs. They seem to assume that they will dirty and wreck furniture, even if that isn’t the case. Having a dog, albeit a well-behaved and house-trained one, seems to be somewhat of a black mark against renters’ names. And as we’re not about to kick the Basset out on the streets any time soon, this is a bit of a problem for us for any potential moves in the future.

Have you ever had any nightmare rental situations? Or moved to a new city/country only to be shocked and scarred by the rental market? Please tell me we’re not the only ones!