Existing owner-occupied homes were 18.8 percent more expensive in May this year than in the same month in 2021. This is apparent from figures published on Wednesday from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and the Land Registry. Since a historic high in January this year (a price increase of 21.1 percent), house prices are now rising cautiously less rapidly.
In April, prices were still 19.7 percent higher than in the same month a year ago, and more than 20 percent in February. Compared to June 2013, a low in house prices, last May saw an increase of more than 98 percent. This means that housing has become almost twice as expensive in nine years.
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Decrease in sales
According to figures from the Land Registry, more than 75,500 houses were sold in the first five months of this year, which is again almost a third less than in the same period last year. This year, the number of homes sold fell sharply, especially in relatively expensive cities such as Amsterdam and Utrecht.
In 1995 an owner-occupied home was still sold for an average of 93,750 euros. According to the most recent figures from the CBS in April this year, it was an average of about 429,000 euros, more than four and a half times as much.
The housing market in the Netherlands has been under considerable pressure for years. Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing and Spatial Planning, CDA) wants to build 100,000 houses a year over the next nine years to solve the housing crisis. About 77,000 were built last year.