Oslo is the winner

After allotting funds for 964 student housing units on Friday, the government and minister Tora Aasland added funds for another 321 units on Monday. All in all, this means that the government will end up donating funds for 1285 student housing units in 2009. 209 of them will be built by the Foundation for Student life in Oslo (SiO), while the rest will be built by the Foundation for Student Welfare in University Colleges in Oslo and Akershus (OAS). This is a beneficial lift, according to leader of the board at SiO Øyvind Gjengaar.

– We are very happy about this. Now we will have the opportunity to build new housing, and we will get started as soon as possible.

New building at Vestgrensa

Kjell Senneset fra Prognosesenteret («the Prognosis Centre»), a market analysis company for the building trade, thinks that the fact that SiO will build new housing in the capital will also affect the private rental market. Yet he does not believe that this will affect the current rental price level.

– Of course SiO’s 6000 housing units will lead to lower prices in Oslo. But that these 200 new student housing units are going to be built, will not matter in a private rental market with approximately 50 000 units for rent, Senneset says.

Now SiO will develop a second area at Vestgrensen – a project that has been in the works for several years. The rest of the expansion will be done through smaller extension projects at Bjølsen, Sogn, Enerhaugen and Kringsjå, as well as further work in «new old» student housing projects at Fagerborg and in the student house in Schulz’ gate.

Gjengaar of SiO believes that part of the reason that Oslo ended up with such a large slice of the pie, is that SiO are ready with several housing projects already worked out. That is also the reason why SiO has been especially prepared, he believes.

– This is where the student housing crisis is at its most severe. This is tied up with the share of international students and students from other parts of the country; students who are less able to enter the private housing market, Gjengaar says.

– Really great

Marita Kristin Madsen (21) from Horten studies sociology at Blindern, and has lived in Bjølsen Student Village for six months. She is pleased with having been given a place in the student village.

– The plan was to rent on the private market, that was what everyone else was doing. But then I got a place here, and it was much cheaper. For students that already live in Oslo, it is perhaps easier to find one’s bearings in the private rental market, but for those who come from other places, it is hard to go to viewings and find something good, says Madsen, who shares the student politicians’ enthusiasm for the housing funds that are part of the recently presented crisis package.

– It is really great, of course. There is a lack of housing for students.

– Do you think that you will live in student housing throughout your studies?

– It’s possible. My friends who live in private housing, either live with a partner or in tiny flats that they have bought. I am more alone, and do not currently have any friends that I could move in with. I don’t want to pay 4500 kroner for a seven square metre room in just any flatshare. You can have all kinds of weird experiences.

– The goal has been achieved

Minister of Research and Higher Education Tora Aasland is happy in the role of distributing funds. She thinks that the government is now finally at the level of student housing that they have promised previously.

– Yes, we have reached the goal of 1000 a year. This number is not from the Soria Moria declaration itself, but from a discussion in Parliament, and we have fulfilled that promise this year. Our goal is to keep on going, and we plan to keep going with that goal as a starting point. Approximately 1000 housing units a year is the right number, Aasland says.

– What can we expect in terms of further housing development in Oslo?

– It is not a goal to have a 100% coverage of student housing in Oslo, to put it that way. It is a question of having a reasonable coverage of student housing throughout the country, and we see that the pressure areas in the big cities also have the biggest increase in the number of students. In the next few years, the large and more densely populated areas will be important, and at the same time as we must also make sure that the housing is spread out. But when it comes to these extra 75 million kroner, then it is the large student cities Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim that have been promised these funds, the exception being a project connected to the Norwegian Police University College in Kongsvinger, which is a cooperative project with the Ministry of Justice and the Police.