I’ve been hearing how hard it is to find a rental apartment in Amsterdam. Recently I had to find one. Turns out it’s pretty easy. Not cheap though.
Step 1. Calculate roughly what your maximum rental price is
It depends on which company you rent from, but this calculator gives a pretty good estimate.
Step 2. Get the documents ready
This is the most tedious part. Rental companies want to know everything (except your hobbies). By having your paperwork sorted in advance it’s way less frustrating to apply for viewing as you have all your documentation ready to go in a folder on your computer. If you are with 2 people. Collect the data of the other person as well so one person has everything they need to apply.
- Copy of your passport (BSN blacked out)
- Bank statement with your latest rent payment
- Municipality document as proof of residence (BRP)
- Payslips and bank statements of the previous 3 months
- Copy of the bankcard with the account number on it from which you will pay the rent
- UWV verzekeringsbericht
- Employer’s declaration (Example)
- Renter’s declaration (Example)
Step 3. Decide your minimum requirements
It’s time to start the search. In step 1 you’ve roughly estimated your maximum budget now it’s time to define other search parameters.
- How many bedrooms do you want?
- In which neighborhood do you want to live? Do you want to live centrally or a bit further away if this means more space?
- Which amenities do you want?
- What kind of apartment?
You don’t need to know exactly what you want but having some search parameters makes it a lot easier.
Step 4. Get a Rentslam account
Rentslam is a service that check’s all the Dutch rental websites for new listings and sends them straight to your inbox. First I wanted to create something similar myself but why reinvent the wheel if such a great service already exists? It’s also reasonably priced.
After you’ve created an account create a new search and enter the search parameters you decided on in step 3.
Step 5. Reply Reply Reply
Now it’s time to grind it out. Rentslam will send you new offers daily. Make sure to respond to the once’s you find interesting on the same day (preferably as soon as possible).
Don’t bother trying to look for a listing manually as the chance that the listing is inactive or overbooked is too high.
You’ll find that you need a free account with many of the websites and you even need to enter your details in many cases before you can apply. Luckily you’ve already gathered all the paperwork in step 2. Save the account details in a password manager so when you come back to apply for another apartment you can log in straightaway and don’t have to re-do the whole process.
Step 6. Go to viewings
If you use Rentslam to reply and respond daily to apartments you’ll get invitations for viewings in 1-3 weeks. Now it’s up to you to go to the apartments you like and see which one fits you the best.
PS: Yes it’s dumb you have to compete to pay 1600 euros for an apartment