Why we started Thuisy: because finding a home in the Netherlands has become needlessly difficult.

Looking for a home should not be a full-time job

For many people in the Netherlands, finding a room, studio, flat or rental home is no longer an ordinary search. It has turned into a race.

Reply a few minutes too late and you usually miss your shot at a viewing. Don’t know exactly which websites to keep an eye on, and entire listings pass you by unseen. Just starting out? You quickly run into a wall of regulations, income requirements, waiting lists, paperwork, paid platforms, estate-agent websites and competition from dozens of other home seekers.

That is why we started Thuisy.nl.

Not because we believe a single website can solve the Dutch housing crisis — that would be dishonest. The Netherlands simply has too few homes, too few affordable rentals and too few rooms. What we do believe is that the search itself can be far clearer, faster, fairer and more humane.

Thuisy was born from one simple conviction:

Finding a home may be hard because of scarcity, but it shouldn’t be hard because of chaos.

The housing market isn’t just tight; it’s impossible to navigate

The Dutch housing market has been under pressure for years. According to the official explanation from Volkshuisvesting Nederland, in 2025 the country had roughly 8.462 million households and 8.27 million homes. The statistical housing shortage was estimated at 396,000 homes, or 4.8% of total housing stock. That figure is used as the headline indicator of strain on the housing market.1

That number captures much of what home seekers experience day to day: scarce listings, fierce competition and the constant feeling of running to catch up.

This is precisely why home seekers so often feel as though they are fighting a system, rather than simply looking for a place to live.

First-time movers, in particular, depend on rentals

The pressure falls especially hard on first-time movers. Figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) show that, in 2023, there were 560,000 first-time movers on the housing market in total. Together they formed 338,000 newly established households with a new home. Half of these new households began life in a private rental. Just 19% moved into an owner-occupied property.3

That means the private rental market is, for many, not a luxury choice but the necessary gateway into independent living.

For students, first-time movers, young professionals, expats, those going through divorce, people on temporary contracts and anyone without an extensive personal network, this is a real problem. The very market they rely on most is also the one where the competition bites hardest.

Mid-market rentals are slipping further out of reach

Anyone searching in the mid-market segment quickly learns that affordability has become a serious barrier. The Pararius Rental Monitor for the first quarter of 2026 shows that mid-market rents per square metre rose by 7.3% compared with a year earlier. That puts rent inflation ahead of house-price growth, which stood at 5.1%, and well above general inflation of 2.1%. By that point, 42% of available mid-market listings already carried a rent of more than €2,000 per month.4

In the fourth quarter of 2025 the average mid-market rent stood at €1,838 per month. Pararius also reported at the time that an average mid-market listing attracted 31 enquiries and remained online for just 18 days. With the standard income requirement of roughly three times the monthly rent, the gross monthly income needed to qualify came to around €5,515.5

All of this explains why so many home seekers are not chasing “a beautiful place” so much as speed, clarity and a realistic shot at success.

Student rooms are under just as much strain

For students, the picture is barely any easier. The 2025 National Student Housing Monitor shows that the shortage of student rooms remains stubbornly persistent. Kences reported a measured shortfall of 21,500 rooms, while emphasising that the perceived shortage may be even greater because fewer students now indicate they want to live away from home; according to Kences, some students are simply giving up the search altogether. The forecast for 2032/2033 has been revised upwards, to a range of 26,000 to 63,200 rooms short.6

In addition, Kences reports that the share of Dutch higher-education students living away from home fell from 52% to 44% over eight years. The share who actually want to live in their own room dropped from 59% to 49%.6

This is more than a housing problem. It shapes choice of degree, commuting time, mental wellbeing, independence and access to education itself.

Existing tools are useful — but they don’t yet solve the problem

A range of platforms and tools already exist to help home seekers, and that is a good thing, because the need is undeniable. Several established search services claim to scan 1,000+ websites and to send real-time alerts, with subscriptions that broadly range between €16 and €30 per month. There are also free alternatives focused on broad listing aggregation.

These tools demonstrate that there is clear demand for speed, alerts and aggregation. But they also reveal where there is still room for a fundamentally different approach:

• home seekers want guidance, not just notifications;
• many users want to know how realistic their chances on a given listing actually are;
• students, first-time movers and expats need different information from families or dual-income couples;
• paid platforms can be a barrier for people who are already financially stretched;
• finding a home is not only about discovering listings — it is also about paperwork, timing, responding well, staying safe and keeping a clear overview.

This is precisely where we want Thuisy to make a difference.

The real frustration: everyone is searching at once, but no one has a clear picture

If you are looking for a rental in the Netherlands today, at least one of the following will probably feel familiar:

You open the same websites every morning. You receive alerts for homes that have already been let. You see the same listing duplicated across multiple platforms. You reply within ten minutes and still hear nothing back. You wonder whether a landlord can really be trusted. You don’t know which documents you should have ready in advance. You see “income requirement: 3× the rent” and immediately work out that you don’t qualify. You pay for a platform without ever quite knowing whether the homes it surfaces actually suit your situation.

That isn’t merely inefficient. It is mentally exhausting.

And that, more than anything, is why we started Thuisy.

What Thuisy wants to do differently

Thuisy.nl has been built on the conviction that home seekers do not need yet another source of stress. They need a clear system that helps them act faster and smarter.

Our mission, therefore, is this:

Thuisy helps home seekers in the Netherlands find a room, studio, flat or rental property faster, with a clearer overview and greater confidence.

That doesn’t mean we can magic up new homes. It does mean we want to improve the search itself, on five fronts.

1. A single, clear starting point for your search

The Dutch rental market is fragmented. Listings appear on large platforms, estate-agent websites, room-rental sites, social media, housing-corporation portals, niche platforms and sometimes only through word of mouth. Thuisy aims to give home seekers a single overview to work from, instead of manually trawling dozens of sites every day.

2. Responding quickly, without panic

In a market where homes can attract dozens of replies and disappear within days, timing matters. Pararius reported, for example, that mid-market listings in Q4 2025 received an average of 31 enquiries and remained online for just 18 days.5 Speed, however, must not mean replying blindly. Thuisy wants to combine speed with relevance: not more noise, but better matches.

3. Better preparation for documents and requirements

Many home seekers lose precious time gathering paperwork only after a landlord has asked for it — income statements, employer’s references, payslip copies, motivation letters, references from previous landlords or guarantor information. Thuisy aims to help users get all of this in order up front, so they can respond more quickly and more professionally when a suitable home appears.

4. More transparency about realistic chances

Not every listing is equally winnable. A flat at €1,800 a month, with an income requirement of three times the rent and dozens of replies, is simply not realistic for many single home seekers. At the same time, rooms, studios, shared homes or less popular regions can offer far better odds. Thuisy wants to help users search more realistically, without forcing them to abandon what they actually want.

5. Renting more safely

Scarcity makes home seekers vulnerable. The Dutch government warns that brokerage fees may not be charged to tenants when an estate agent is already acting for the landlord; such charges sometimes appear under different names — administration fees, contract fees or registration fees, for instance.10 In December 2025 RTL reported that the Dutch Fraud Helpdesk had received 250 reports of rental fraud or attempts at it during 2025, with at least half of those who came forward losing money in the process.11 That is why Thuisy aims to help not only with finding homes, but also with recognising warning signs: what is normal, what looks suspicious and when it pays to be extra careful.

Why speed matters — but fairness matters more

Many rental search tools focus on “being first to reply”. There is a logic to that, because speed does help: estate agents often consider only the first 10 to 20 enquiries, even when dozens of people have responded.

But speed alone is not enough.

If everyone receives faster alerts, the problem simply shifts. The market remains just as tight, only at a higher tempo. That is why, with Thuisy, we want to look beyond notifications.

We believe a successful home search rests on four layers:

1. Step 01

   Discovering listings

   All sources, gathered in one place.

2. Step 02

   Knowing whether it fits

   Matching budget, situation and preferences.

3. Step 03

   Responding quickly & professionally

   With your documents already prepared.

4. Step 04

   Tracking progress & staying safe

   Following status, spotting fraud.

Thuisy wants to support home seekers across all four stages.

Who is Thuisy for?

Thuisy is built for people searching for a home or a room in the Netherlands and getting stuck along the way. We have in mind, among others:

The aim is not to give one group preferential treatment. It is to make the system more intelligible for everyone who is searching seriously.

A shifting market: less affordable supply, more pressure on tenants

One critical trend is that the affordable end of the mid-market is under sustained pressure. In Q1 2026 Pararius reported that supply in the affordable segment continues to shrink, with a growing share of mid-market listings priced above €2,000 per month.4

On top of that, investors are continuing to sell off rentals. The Land Registry (Kadaster) recorded that, in the fourth quarter of 2025, investors sold more than 20,700 homes — the highest figure since 2021. By 1 January 2026, 9% of the housing stock was owned by investors, down from 9.4% on 1 January 2024.8 Citing Land Registry data, Dutch broadcaster NOS reported that, across the whole of 2025, investors sold more than 65,000 rental homes and bought just over 27,000 in return.9

For prospective buyers, this can occasionally open up opportunities. For tenants, it tends to mean less supply, sharper competition and higher pressure overall.

Thuisy won’t solve the housing crisis — but it does tackle a tangible problem

We want to be straightforward about that.

Thuisy doesn’t build homes. Thuisy doesn’t decide who gets one. Thuisy cannot shorten waiting lists at housing corporations or change income requirements set by landlords.

What Thuisy can do is:

• help home seekers see suitable listings sooner;
• cut the noise through better filtering;
• give the search a clearer structure;
• help users prepare their documents and replies;
• explain the rules, costs and risks involved;
• support home seekers in making realistic decisions;
• prevent people from missing valuable chances through chaos or lack of information.

That is no small improvement. For someone who has been searching for months, having a clear overview can be the difference between staying stuck and finally feeling in control.

Our guiding principle: technology should empower home seekers

The housing market is uneven. Not everyone has the same network, the same knowledge, the same language skills, the same budget or the same time to refresh websites all day long.

Technology can either narrow that gap or widen it. If the best tools are affordable only to those who can pay handsomely, a new divide opens up. If tools focus solely on speed, searching becomes more stressful, not less. If platforms offer opaque subscriptions or irrelevant matches, users lose trust.

That is why we want to build Thuisy around three principles:

What we want to give home seekers

Ultimately, Thuisy is not really about technology. It is about peace of mind.

House-hunting in the Netherlands will remain difficult. But it doesn’t have to be messy, opaque and lonely.

In closing: we started Thuisy because the search should feel more humane

We started Thuisy because, for many people, the Dutch housing market feels like a closed system: too few homes, too much competition, too little transparency and far too much stress.

The figures bear that out. The Netherlands has a substantial housing shortage. First-time movers are highly dependent on private rentals. Mid-market rents are rising faster than inflation. Student rooms remain scarce. Affordable supply is disappearing. And home seekers are required to be quicker, better prepared and more vigilant than ever.

Thuisy is our answer to that reality.

Not as a miracle cure. Not as a promise that everyone will instantly find a home. But as a practical, honest and intelligent way to give home seekers more of a grip on the process.

Because finding a home doesn’t begin with endless scrolling.

It begins with clarity.

Welcome to Thuisy.nl.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. 1.Volkshuisvesting Nederland — The statistical housing shortage explained (2025).
2. 2.Dutch Government — State of Public Housing 2025.
3. 3.CBS — Housing journeys for first-time movers often begin in a private rental.
4. 4.Pararius Rental Monitor Q1 2026 — Rents rising faster than house prices.
5. 5.Pararius Rental Monitor Q4 2025 — Affordable rentals disappearing from the market.
6. 6.Kences — National Student Housing Monitor 2025.
7. 7.Kences — Student Housing Monitor 2025 publication.
8. 8.Kadaster — Investors Q4 2025: record number of homes sold.
9. 9.NOS — Investors sell more than 65,000 rental homes in 2025.
10. 10.Dutch Government — rules on brokerage fees for tenants.
11. 11.RTL — Hundreds of home seekers fall victim to rental fraud (Dec. 2025).