When he signed up for a room in the Ravel Residence student complex in the summer of 2024, it was nowhere near fully let. ‘Most students would obviously prefer to live in the centre’, is his explanation. ‘Besides that, the rooms are in the slightly upmarket segment, we have our own bathrooms and kitchens, the building is well maintained, there’s a caretaker during the day and it’s secured at night.’ But Angelo is forgetting to mention the study areas, the lounge, the large courtyard garden and the sports field on the roof of the building. These kind of facilities cost money.
Eighty new housemates
The Residence opened its doors in February 2015. Angelo was one of its first residents. The landlord, Student Experience, certainly has no complaints about interest now. ‘There’s a mad rush as soon as a room becomes free’, says Angelo. Rooms are vacated every academic year, because residents have to leave no later than six months after completing their study programme. That meant that Angelo had 80 new housemates this academic year and also said farewell to just as many. Lots of the residents know him by name, because Angelo has been a member of the residents’ committee almost since the start. In four years’ time, he will be vacating the place himself, because that’s when – if all goes well – he graduates as a sociology teacher at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
There is a great atmosphere, it is a prime, easily accessible, location and, a fact he is secretly pleased about, many people consider living in Zuidas to be ‘hip’. So, there is nothing to complain about? Of course there is. ‘The road outside our door was one big construction pit for 18 months. Nobody warned us about that when we came to live here. All that construction noise causes a lot of hassle for many students. The work outside the building has now been completed, but construction work on Valley, some distance away, has also now started. When sheet piling was being inserted, it was shaking the glasses out of the cupboard. That’s quite annoying if you want to study.’
The good news is that the residents are now given timely warnings. Angelo: ‘The City of Amsterdam communicates very clearly about the works and we often receive flyers from contractors. Just to be sure, we now also share that type of information on the residents’ committee’s Facebook page. That way, we can reach virtually everyone.’
See also studentexperience.nl.
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