Belgium: The city of Ghent has put out a call to landowners who have undeveloped property near student campuses.
The local authority has announced it will offer owners a guided advisory service for the development of sustainable student housing units.
The move was prompted by the city’s student housing shortage, as shown by a 2021 report. One of the key findings from the report was that Ghent needs an extra 10,000 student beds.
City officials have now unveiled their plan to tackle the shortage, with one of the key measures focusing on long-term supply and demand factors. The city wants to take an active role in discussing expansions of university programmes at a local level so that a sudden influx of foreign and domestic students does not destabilise the housing market at the start of every semester.
One of the first steps local authorities will take to calm the local housing market is to proactively look for suitable land and development options specifically for student housing.
Ghent officials are offering support to people who own at least 1,000 square metres of land that is within a 10-minute bike ride to a university. The city wants to convince them to opt for the development of sustainable student housing on their land.
According to a press statement, Ghent will offer them know-how as well as a suitable project developer. They will also help draw up a high-quality design and act as a central point of contact. In this way, the land owner and the project developer would be guided to get a building permit as efficiently and as smoothly as possible.
