Amsterdam’s expat centre has signed an agreement with the city’s real estate agents’ association MVA in an effort to improve housing services for internationals.

In total, 15 housing brokers will undergo training to better meet demand for housing from the international community, the Parool reports.

In particular, landlords assume expats are all very high earners and charge high rents, the paper says.

‘If you earn €52,000 a year (as a highly-skilled migrant) and are paying €2,000 a month rent you can’t buy a fancy sandwich from the bakery,’ said expat centre director David van Traa. ‘That is our main worry: there are no houses on offer with medium rents.’

The training programme will also include insights into the demands of different nationalities. Germans, for example, want to know if there is asbestos in a property while the Chinese continue to try to negotiate on price, the Parool says.

Spaniards, by contrast, are easily pleased in the main but will never accept a house without a window in the bathroom, the paper says.