Amsterdam housing chief Zita Pels has told councillors she is prepared to write to rental housing platforms such as Kamernet and HousingAnywhere urging them to take a more active role in removing illegal listings from their websites and warning prospective tenants about excessive rents.
Rooms in shared houses are also covered by rent controls and, according to tenants’ rights groups, many are being advertised at illegally high prices. The problem is most acute in Amsterdam, where the average rent for a room in a shared house has reached nearly €1,000 — an amount that probably breaches rent control regulations.
However, Pels said direct talks with the platforms would be of limited use, as the companies maintain that this is not their responsibility. “All four [major platforms] see themselves as facilitators without any responsibility for the content users place on their sites,” she said.
Pels also said she will write to the European Commission calling for a change to EU legislation which aims to ensure platforms refuse to accept illegal content. At the moment, the Digitial Services Act requires online agencies to remove illegal content if they alerted to it, but not to proactively do so.
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Her comments came in response to questions from D66 councillor Suleyman Aslami about how online housing agencies promote apartments and rooms that are clearly overpriced in relation to their size and quality.
He said the platforms are undermining affordable housing laws by allowing landlords to list properties that clearly break the rules. For example, Kamernet is currently advertising a 13-square-metre room in a shared house in Amsterdam for €1,300.
“We all know you can’t ask €1,000 for a room of 12 square metres,” Aslami told Dutch News. “They are facilitating something that is illegal.”
HousingAnywhere, the European rental platform that owns Kamernet, told Dutch News it is “open to discuss and collaborate with the aim of better supporting tenants and landlords”.
Evaluating overpriced rooms must be done on a case-by-case basis, and often requires in-person inspections, which platforms are unable to carry out, said chief operating officer Jim Bijwaard.
“Currently, we remain open to mediating, including removing listings, when concerns about the legality of rental prices are brought to our attention by tenants. We are also keen to hear the further recommendations the city council may provide in the future,” he said.
Tenants rights
Gert Jan Bakker, a consultant with tenants’ rights group Woon, has called for new rules requiring rental platforms to advertise more transparently — for example, by publishing the official number of rent points a room qualifies for.
Amsterdam officials previously introduced rules requiring holiday rental platforms such as Airbnb to include a permit number in all listings, in an effort to crack down on illegal holiday lets.
Meanwhile, more tenants are turning to the Huurcommissie (rent tribunal), with the number of online rent price checks doubling last year and a record number of complaints about poorly maintained homes.
In particular, the English-language rent check tool on the tribunal’s website was completed more than 13,300 times in the first four months of this year, compared with just 3,313 in 2024 as a whole.
Dutch News has asked Zita Pels to comment.