Rental prices in/around Amsterdam

Just another day in the office. New initiations for a new customer. Always good news.

The new customer cannot find people with the right skills in the Netherlands and decided to recruit people from abroad. A number of very enthousiastic and qualified people from India, Belarus and Turkey were offered a labour contract. A Dutch labour contract as the positions that they will fill in are permanent positions.

The new employees are keen to move to the Netherlands; they have found a good job within a company that values their background and where they can build a future. They are looking forward to moving to the Netherlands; a beautiful and stable country.

Their labour contracts offer the minimum requirement for their immigration. As non EU citizens they will need a work permit and a residence permit. Anywr Netherlands will arrange for their immigration via the highly skilled migrant procedure. The minimum income for this procedure is € 4.404,00* gross per month for people older than 30 years and € 3.229,00* gross per month for people below the 30 years.
Five of the six new employees are aged under 30, so their income will be € 3.229,00 per month. Immigration wise this is sharp on the line but sufficient to get approval.

However, the salary per month wil cause problems to find a house. With rental prices in Amsterdam that are minimally around € 1.300,00 (to find a house with this rent is more or less a wild goose chase) their income level will not be sufficient. There are more properties for € 1.500,00 or more on the market. This will be a too high amount, even for the 1 person who is older than 30 years. The maximum rent is usually calculated as 1/3* gross monthly income.

I saw an interesting item on the Dutch television about the situation on the housing market in Amsterdam. The expats are to blame for the uncontrolled rise of the rental prices in/around the city is the message. Anywr Netherlands assists around 2000 employees per year with their move to the Netherlands. Many of them fall in the above category; they cannot afford a house in/around Amsterdam.

I think a discussion about how to solve this problem, that is applicable to both local and international people, is more valuable than blaming a group of people that the Dutch economy really needs at the moment. Who wants to help us solve this problem?