What happens when displaced Ukrainians try to find a home on the private rental market?

What happens when displaced Ukrainians try to find a home on the private rental market?

Our research used Telegram to explore this question.

In the Netherlands, only 16% of displaced Ukrainians have independent housing, according to the 25 September 2026 Letter to Parliament.

For our report, Accommodation for Displaced People from Ukraine in the Netherlands: Challenges, Barriers, and Solutions (2023), we analysed 11,000 to 200,000 messages from local Telegram channels.

Why Telegram?

The most popular social media platform among displaced Ukrainians gave us a window into the housing search as it happened.

We could explore:

🔹 What rental properties were being advertised.

🔹 What prices landlords were asking.

🔹 How people responded to available offers.

🔹 What requirements people faced when trying to rent a home.

The findings showed that an available home is not necessarily an accessible home.

Landlords and agencies could ask for permanent employment contracts, several months of salary slips, rental references in the Netherlands or financial guarantees.

For displaced Ukrainians, these requirements could make it difficult to rent a home, even when they were ready to move into independent housing.

Why does this matter today?

The challenge of finding housing remains closely linked to people's ability to work, live independently and build a future in the Netherlands.

Telegram helped us look beyond official statistics and understand the barriers people encounter in their everyday search for a home.

Research is not only about counting homes. It is also about understanding who can access them — and why.