Tens of thousands of students struggle to find housing

Amid a worsening housing crisis, tens of thousands of students in Germany have been unable to find accommodation for the start of the new academic year. International students are particularly badly affected, writes Helen Whittle for Deutsche Welle.

As a sign of just how bad the situation is, the student association in the central German city of Göttingen has rented a hotel where students can stay at reduced rates for the first couple of weeks of term. In Munich in southern Germany – where students have to shell out an average of €720 (US$770) a month in rent – one camping site offered homeless students the chance to camp out at reduced rates.

Earlier this year, a study by the Eduard Pestel Research Institute found there to be a shortage of more than 700,000 apartments in Germany, especially in the affordable segment. And rents have risen dramatically, first and foremost in the big university towns.
Full report on the DW site