Housing in Wageningen

Idealis is the student accommodation provider in Wageningen and Ede and manages approximately 6,300 housing units. PhD candidates at Wageningen University are also eligible to rent a room through Idealis. Please visit the Idealis website for the current application procedure.

When are you eligible?

As a WUR PhD candidate you are welcome to rent from Idealis if you are registered in the PhD Candidates Information System (Hora Finita). Note that you must be officially admitted and that the status of your registration in Hora Finita is no longer "in progress”. You will not be registered in Hora Finita if you do not obtain your PhD in Wageningen.

You can respond to available rooms from Idealis via Roommatch. To do this, you must first create an account on the national platform ROOM.nl and pay the one-time registration fee. Once registered, you can log in and respond to room offers published by Idealis on Roommatch.nl. The longer you’ve been registered on ROOM.nl, the better your position in the queue and the higher your chances of securing accommodation. Therefore, make sure to register as early as possible, even if you don’t yet know your exact arrival date.

Unfurnished rooms are literally unfurnished, i.e. no bed, desk, closet or curtains.

Priority

The IDEALIS priority housing procedure is only available for PhD candidates in category ‘scholarship PhD candidate’ and for PhD candidates who are part of the INREF programme or WGS programme and who come to the Netherlands for the first time. Please check the UNL PhD type (in the ‘General’ tab) in Hora Finita to see which category you belong to.

Keep in mind that if you are coming with your family no priority arrangements are available for family rooms. You must be officially admitted and also the status of your registration in HORA FINITA is no longer "in progress". To request room priority your first promotor (from his or her email address) needs to send the completed priority registration form to Doctoral Service Centre: immigration.dsc@wur.nl. Doctoral Service Centre will check and forward the priority application form to Idealis. Idealis will then contact the PhD candidate and assign priority.

The priority only applies to Idealis rooms that become available between 1 October and 30 April and is only valid for the first time the PhD candidate comes to the Netherlands. You can respond to rooms within the room priority period of two months. Please note that if your registration is after 1 March the priority period will be less than 2 months (only until 30 April). Between 30 April and 1 October, room priority applies only to master's and bachelor's students. If you wish to use priority, we advise to discuss your first arrival date (and possibly also the start date of your PhD project) with your supervisor.

• Priority for the academic year 2025 - 2026 can be applied for from 16 September 2025 (till 1 April 2026).

Applications for the academic year 2025 - 2026 will only be taken into consideration when they are sent to immigration.dsc@wur.nl on or after 16 September 2025. Applications sent before 16 September 2025 will not be considered.

There are different Facebook groups that can help out with finding housing in Wageningen.

• Wageningen Student Plaza: The Facebook group for Wageningen Students. Besides second hands stuff also rooms are offered here. Or you can ask if someone in this group knows about an available room.
• Wageningen Room Sublets Mostly temporary rooms.
• Wageningen Student Housing
• Hoefweg Ede

There are also Facebook groups created by and intended for people of certain nationalities. You might find it easier to find a suitable space or help in general there.

Rent benefits

In some cases, one can receive rent benefit from the Dutch government. Information about rent benefits can be found on the site of the Dutch Tax Administration.

WUR House Hunting community

Tip: Ask your chair group management/office assistant (or another future colleague with a WUR account) to post a message on your behalf in the internal WUR Viva Engage community 'House Hunting'.

PhD candidates looking for a room in Wageningen (other than through Idealis/Room.nl) should be wary of scams to prevent paying for a non-existent room. Some indications that can be used to identify scammers are:

• The landlord does not allow you (or another person) to view the room or flat before you have to transfer money.
• There is a high time pressure (the first person to sign the contract gets the room).
• The person posting the ad on (for instance) Facebook has little or no information on their personal page.
• Advertisements contain anomalous details in the use of language or the advertisement contains incorrect information (such as that a flat is “near a shopping mall”, which we don’t have in Wageningen).

KopieID app

Landlords (other than Idealis where you upload a copy of your passport in your personal online account on Room.nl) are allowed to ask for personal information and your ID number, but not for a copy of your passport or your citizen service number. In case you do want to make a secure copy of your ID we strongly advise you to use the KopieID app.

Please read all about this app on this website of the Dutch Government. You can download the KopieID app at the  Apple App Store or Google Play Store. The app is a publication of the National Office for Identity Data, part of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations of the Netherlands.