– I don’t know how many squares there are, but there aren’t many. There is no room for much more than a bed and a wardrobe. For that I pay NOK 6,300, says Kaja Ingdal Hovdenak. She talks about her room, which will be her home during her studies in Bergen. It is so small that the 22-year-old from Ås prefers to stay in the common areas of the collective. A large clothes rack dominates the room, which serves as both living room and kitchen. Only housing for every sixth student – The student housing I looked at cost 4,800 and was quite a bit bigger. So there is quite a big difference in what you get for the money, says Hovdenak. In Bergen, there are around 4,800 student housing and around 30,000 students. The recent Bergen student is very surprised by the low coverage rate. – It is absolutely sick. You want people to get higher education, but there won’t be more student housing. At the same time, prices on the private rental market are increasing, says Hovdenak. STRAIGHT: Kaja pays NOK 6,300 for this room. The rent also includes access to common areas and bathrooms. Tough on the private rental market Rental prices have skyrocketed in the big cities over the past year. According to Aftenposten, the dormitory price in Oslo is now NOK 10,000 on average. Apartments in the biggest cities have increased by between NOK 1,500 and 2,000 a month, according to figures from Finn Eiendom, which the newspaper reproduces. At the same time, around 17,000 students all over the country are queuing up to get student dormitories through the student cooperatives. Several of these are also struggling to find housing on the private housing market. news told on Tuesday about Mohammed Mousa from Tønsberg, who most often does not even get a response when he sends a request for available apartments and dormitories in Stavanger, where he will now study. The 22-year-old now expects to have to spend the start of his studies in a hotel. Reacting to Borten Moe’s plot In the same case, Minister of Education Ola Borten Moe (Sp) claims that the student associations must take the blame for the fact that there are too few student housing. He claims the associations prioritize welfare services over the construction of new homes. – It is a bit strange that he spends his time criticizing us instead of implementing the measures he himself takes at national level, says Amalie Lunde, who is chair of the Students’ Association in Western Norway, Sammen. CONTINUED SHORTAGE: In Bergen, there are less than 5,000 student housing available for the around 30,000 students in the city. Here the student housing at Møllendal, by Store Lungegårdsvann. Photo: Benjamin Dyrdal / news Believes the municipality is working against it She apologizes for the situation for the students in Bergen and says it does not depend on the will to build more. Two projects are now pending approval by Bergen municipality. – Right now it’s a bit critical, but we have two main problems. Firstly, there is a shortage of land. Secondly, planning processes in the municipality are currently very slow, which means that it takes a long time to get the number of homes up. We have met with enormous resistance. For example, it took four years to get approval to build our one plant in Laksevåg, says Lunde. She believes the Minister of Education should include student housing as a separate purpose in the Planning and Building Act, which she believes will provide a predictability in the application process that is lacking today. – Then the municipalities can manage to give us the exemptions we need to be able to build, says Lunde. FRUSTRATED: Chair of the Student Union in Vestland, Amalie Lunde, says the housing situation for students in the city is critical at the moment. Photo: Ørjan Andreassen – Makes Bergen less attractive Acting city council leader in Bergen, Thor Håkon Bakke (MDG), says no one in the city council can comment on criticism of Bergen municipality today. In any case, fresh Bergen student Kaja Ingdal Hovdenak believes that the housing shortage could become a major problem. – I think the lack of housing can scare students away from Bergen. I wouldn’t have felt confident about moving here if I didn’t have a place to live two weeks before the start of the semester, says the 22-year-old.
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– Makes Bergen less attractive for students – news Vestland
