Accommodation

Accommodation has two major problems both in Pakistan and Scandinavia

1-      Availability

2-      Cost

I remember that once I was trying to find a house in Karachi for my friends, it was really difficult. The advance fares and security deposits were out of reach. For single guys it was even more difficult. People were willing to give their houses to family only. The process was really annoying and tiring.

When I came to Sweden, the housing crisis for student housing was at its peak. There was only one big real estate company that was renting some student housing. The process of getting a house was totally on luck. At 8 AM they used to publish the student rooms and the first one who was successful to click got the room. The room rent was really high. So everyone wanted to have as small room as they can. The minimum room size was 9 square meter. And its rent was somewhere around 1200 SEK. In Pakistan it was possible to book an apartment of 2 bedrooms with this price. Similarly the average rent away from university was around 1800 SEK and on campus it was around 4000 SEK. In bigger cities in Sweden the prices were higher and the availability was even worse. 

In Norway the student housing is also a very big problem. The available number of rooms is very less than the number of students. Non European students has a benefit here, university provides the guarantee of accommodation because it is in the visa requirement. Therefore non Europeans get the accommodation easily while the local and European students struggle a lot with this. Cost of accommodation is much higher in Norway than Sweden and for a student coming from Pakistan it is a disaster. However the quality of accommodation is quite good.

When someone applies for a study visa, they need to show that they have enough money to stay in the country for the period of study. I can understand that the immigration offices give a fair advice to the foreign students that they should have a reasonable economy to live a normal life in their country. But the ground realities are different. Even if people have that much amount of money, they still compare it with their home country and they don’t dare to spend that money. For example the living cost in Sweden is 7300 SEK/ month according to the migration board. But I have seen people living under 1000 SEK, and majority spending between 1000-3000 SEK per month. Even the European students having better economy were not spending more than 5000 SEK. If you are curious then I can tell that my living cost in Sweden was under 2000 SEK for first year. After I got a job, it increased a bit but not that much. After working for over a year it increased and then never came down to that level. 

Most of these costs were saved on accommodation. There were many rooms or houses where 3-5 people were sharing one room. Sharing the rent and food was costing them around 600 to 900 SEK. Most of these people were avoiding the traveling costs by walking and avoided any possibility of eating outside. 1000 Swedish or Norwegian Kroner is still a big amount of money in many countries. The after effects of these shared accommodation made it difficult to rent apartments. People living in shared rooms were always scared that someone will complain about them and then they will have to change it. Anyways they all survived and saved as much money as they could. In Norway I have also seen a similar trend of saving money due to the shared accommodation. But comparing to Sweden it is still not that common.

In Sweden my last student room was costing me around 1600 SEK and in Norway it is costing me around 3800 SEK and the size of both rooms and apartments are almost same.

After getting some odd jobs some guys started booking single rooms or apartments and after getting economical stability the majority started living in a better condition but some of them did not left their accommodations to save the money.

It is not a discussion of what is right or what is wrong. It is what has happened.