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The cities in Norway with the worst student housing queues

Recent years have seen record numbers of students in Norway's student housing queues. Some, but not all, of the country's biggest cities have queues stretching into the thousands.

Published: 17 July 2024 16:20 CEST
Pictured is a student dorm.
Norway is once again struggling with a student housing queue. Pictured is a student dorm. Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu on Unsplash

Some 13,000 students are stuck in a student housing queue ahead of the start of the academic year in Norway, according to figures reported by TV 2, 

The longest queue is in Oslo, where nearly 7,000 students are waiting for student accommodation. Norway’s second-largest city, Bergen, has a student housing queue of 3,400.

In Stavanger, the figures are less stark, with 734 waiting for a place to live. However, SiS, a student organisation and housing provider in Stavanger, said tenants extending their contracts had reduced the number of vacant places for applicants.

Kristina Renberg, SiS’s marketing and communications manager, told TV 2 that this was likely due to the tight rental market in Stavanger.

In Tromsø, 1,070 have applied for student accommodation. Trondheim no longer has a student housing queue, but around 1,000 people are waiting to be notified when housing becomes available.

What’s being done about the housing queue?

The Student Association in Western Norway, a housing provider, has said there needs to be measures to allow the construction of more student housing.

“In order for us to be able to build more housing, we are dependent on the government taking the student housing investment seriously and increasing the subsidy,” Amalie Lunde, chairperson of the Student Association in Western Norway, said.

While the government has given permission to build more than 1,800 new student housing places, Lunde said that places needed to be more heavily subsidised by the government to keep rent affordable for students.

The Norwegian Arctic Student Welfare Organisation had entered into a partnership with Tromsø Lodge and Camping to offer students discounts on accommodation at the start of their studies.

Trondheim has set up rooms at local hotels and hostels as part of its “roof over your head” initiative. This offer is active between July 24th and September 1st.

In Oslo, more student housing has been built at Kringsjå and the managing director of housing provider and student housing organisation SiO, Andreas Eskelund, said that offers for student housing would continue being sent out over the summer.

“There will be movement in the queue, and I will continue to send out offers throughout the summer. We encourage the students to be active and keep their spirits up,” he said.

State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Ivar B. Prestbakmo, said that measures on student housing would be presented in the state budget for 2025 in October.

In Bergen, temporary places have been set up in an administration space. 

What international students need to know

International students are typically given priority in the housing queue, and many universities have a guarantee. However, international students who have yet to apply for student housing will have likely missed the deadline to be guaranteed a place or receive priority.

If you are concerned about finding a place in student accommodation, then most universities have an office aimed at helping international students. Getting in touch with them will help as they may be able to give recommendation or a curated list of options.

When renting privately, you will need to give yourself a good overview of the rules in Norway, such as rent, deposits, when the landlord can access the property, and contracts.

READ MORE: How to get student housing in Norway as an international student

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PROPERTY

Could Norway soften its mortgage requirements?

Norway's mortgage regulations, set by the finance ministry, expire at the end of 2024. Some experts believe the requirements could be made easier in the new year.

Published: 22 August 2024 11:24 CEST
Could Norway soften its mortgage requirements?

The country has a strict set of lending regulations that banks need to account for when offering customers mortgages.

Among these are mortgage applicants only being allowed to borrow the equivalent of five times their income minus any existing debts and a minimum 15 percent deposit on house loans.

Banks can then set their own requirements on top of these minimum requirements. For example, one of Norway’s largest banks, DNB, has previously told The Local that it typically asks foreigners for a 25 percent deposit.

READ MORE: What foreign residents in Norway need to know to get a mortgage

Norway’s latest set of requirements expires at the end of the year, but broadcaster TV 2 reports that they could be softened to make it easier for consumers to obtain mortgages.

The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway, which supervises banks and other financial institutions, will publish its advice for what the government should do with lending regulations.

TV 2 reports that the Ministry of Finance said the government’s decision on what to do would be published towards Christmas.

Any changes proposed by the government would come into effect from the new year.

Jeanette Fjære-Lindkjenn, a PhD student at the Housing Lab at Oslo Met and who has previously worked as an economist for NB Markets and Norges Bank, told TV 2 that some form of change to the regulations was expected.

“I think it is perhaps more realistic that there could be some kind of softening or more flexibility, which might mean that these costs (of getting a loan) could be a little less,” she told the broadcaster.

Fjære-Lindkjenn said that the introduction of exceptions to the equity requirement for households with good finances would be one possible solution. She said in return, houses with lower equity would initially make larger monthly payments.

Her and others’ research at the Housing Lab at Oslo Met has examined how mortgage regulations affect house prices and debt growth, households’ financial vulnerability, and banks’ losses related to lending.

The research was uncertain whether the current regulations increased financial vulnerability for households.

The current 15 percent requirement could be a double-edged sword, though, Fjære-Lindkjenn said. This is because the 15 percent figure stopped people from taking on bigger loans than they could handle, but on the other hand, the high equity requirement leaves consumers with little in the way of savings after buying a house.

Should the rules be relaxed, Fjære-Lindkjenn expected a short-term and moderate increase in housing prices.

“The research we have now shows that the effect on house prices has appeared to be quite short-lived and moderate. I believe that in the long term, there will be other more important drivers for house prices,” she said.

Norway’s lending regulations were last relaxed in 2022 when the government reduced the interest rate changes applicants would need to tolerate from five percent to three percent.

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