Many student rooms in Tilburg are overpriced

Almost 70 percent of the student rooms in Tilburg investigated by the radio programme Argos are being offered at an excessive rent. At the same time, the Tilburg Rent Team is receiving hundreds of reports about excessive rents. The municipality says it has now started carrying out more proactive inspections.

A large proportion of student rooms in Tilburg are being offered at rents that are too high. This is according to an investigation by the investigative programme Argos. Of the 72 rooms investigated in Tilburg, 68 percent were overpriced. On average, landlords in Tilburg were charging €189 per month more than legally permitted.

In July and August, Argos examined 2,637 advertisements and compared the asking rent with the maximum rent permitted under the points-based system.

Since January 1, 2025, municipalities have also been able to take action when landlords fail to comply with the rules, for example by issuing a warning or fine. There is also the Rent Team, which assesses rental prices, for example when a tenant and landlord disagree about the rent.

Reports in Tilburg

Many reports are also coming in from Tilburg. In 2024 and 2025, the Tilburg Rent Team received 551 reports concerning excessive rents. Following 466 home inspections, rents were reduced in 323 cases, reports Omroep Brabant.

There is a notable difference compared with the municipality’s reporting centre. Since 2025, it has received nine reports concerning possible violations of the rental regulations. The Rent Team is not part of the municipality, but the municipality does contract it to support tenants.

Last year, the municipal council asked the executive board of mayor and aldermen to investigate how the Rent Team could best be organised and funded in the future, with particular attention to vulnerable groups such as (international) students and migrant workers.

More Proactive Inspections

D66 Tilburg councillor Sofia Schampers asked the municipal executive questions in response to the Argos investigation. Among other things, she asked whether Tilburg could, following the example of Rotterdam and The Hague, take a more active and risk-based approach to enforcing the rules on excessive room rents.

The municipal executive says that the municipality has ‘already started doing so recently.’ Inspections are being carried out, among other things, at landlords who are already known to the municipality, as well as through random checks of other rented properties. According to the municipal executive, there is no need to expand enforcement capacity for the time being.

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