Substantial drop in housing queues

When the Foundation for Student Life in Oslo (SiO) went through their waiting lists recently, they managed to cut the number of people wait-listed for student housing down to 1000. This is a considerable plunge from the increase on 2600 at the beginning of the semester.

– The reason for this is not that we have been able to give these students apartments, it’s simply that we have «cleaned up» the lists, says Director of SiO Housing Tom Olstad.

According to Olstad, applicants who do not get in touch within 50 days fall out of the system. This «cleaning up» is done in order to get more genuine waiting lists.

The list is now down to half. People who are still looking for somewhere to live, and who have not been in touch with us for the past 50 days have to reapply, he explains.

Based on SiO’s own search engine, it is easy to see that the most popular student houses are the ones which are centrally situated, relatively new, with en-suite bathroom and kitchen.

– Is it still possible to get accommodation on the day you apply, or is the capacity full on all of the Foundation’s student houses?

– At the moment there are a few vacant rooms at Kringsjå, but this can change rapidly.

Leader of the student welfare body The Velferdsting, Øyvind Gjengaar, feels that even though the waiting lists have been cut in half, this is far from good enough.

– It’s nice to see that the queue is decreasing in size, but 1000 people waiting in line is still 1000 too many. We wish to offer reasonably priced accommodation to everyone who needs it.