In the Netherlands from what I've seen (at least around Amsterdam) it's almost always forbidden for houses to be rented out to a group of flatmates (e.g. students), some people go so far as to fake relationships to imply they're a couple instead.

I'm not sure if this an actual law but housing listings often imply its forbidden in the neighborhood, they're looking for couples and families with kids.

> In the Netherlands from what I've seen (at least around Amsterdam) it's almost always forbidden for houses to be rented out to a group of flatmates (e.g. students), some people go so far as to fake relationships to imply they're a couple instead.

The landlord believes that their property and their relationships with the neighbours of the property will be less likely to destroyed by letting the property to older/respected/settled down members of society. Common practice in most of UK as well.

The whole rental law is utterly fucked in the Netherlands, and the Dutch keep solving the issue of too many rules in typical Dutch fashion - by adding even more rules. The end result is that you have a huge number of people paying significantly below the market rate, which is great for them, but if you want a new contract, the answer is "nope, go be poor somewhere else".