International schools in and around Amsterdam have increasingly long waiting lists due to the large influx of expats in recent years.

In 2015, 140 new companies opened up offices in Amsterdam, which is a record number for the second year in a row.

The Parool reports that this unprecedented growth is leading to a bottleneck for new expats settling in Amsterdam.

The Amsterdam city official for economics, Kajsa Ollongren, told the Parool that the waiting lists for international schools in the area is an issue that the city takes very seriously.

Future consequences?

The school waiting lists can also impact the decision-making process of international companies in the future.

According to Ollongren, one of the first questions companies ask when considering to move employees and their families to a new country is, "How will the schools be?"

Parents are currently sent on to Almere due to Amsterdam schools being full, but now the schools there are also beginning to have waiting lists for new students.

Number one priority

Ollongren says that this issue is at the top of the list, to enable the entire Amsterdam region to expand international schools with satellite campuses or with new locations.

One international school is set to begin the transformation of the former prison building on Havenstraat 6 in Amsterdam in the summer of 2016. The historic building from 1890 in Amsterdam Zuid will house a school for 900 students by 2018 or 2019.

279 new companies in two years

In 2015, 140 foreign companies settled in the Amsterdam region. That is one more than in 2014, which was the record at the time.

These companies brought with them 1.394 jobs in 2015. That’s less than 2013, when international companies came with 1.727 new jobs.

International companies that arrived earlier also experienced a lot of growth in 2015. At 35 international companies, a total of 3.068 new jobs were created.

Expected growth in Amsterdam

Out of the 140 firms that arrived in 2015, 36 are ICT companies. Many are small, some are start-ups, with the potential for exponential growth.

The 140 companies themselves estimate that they will have a total of 2.953 paid positions by 2018.