Existing owner-occupied homes were in December 20.4 percent more expensive on average than a year earlier, reports the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). That is the highest price increase since Statistics Netherlands started tracking price developments in the housing market in 1995. According to CBS economist Peter Hein van Mulligen, Dutch houses only became more expensive at the end of the 1970s, when the government strongly stimulated buying a house.
About all of 2021 the increase compared to a year earlier was 15.2 percent on average, the fastest increase since 2000. In Flevoland the price increase was the largest at 19.2 percent and in Limburg the lowest at 13.5 percent. All types of housing became significantly more expensive. The price of a semi-detached house rose the fastest at 16 percent, while apartments became on average 13.3 percent more expensive and therefore rose in price the least.
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The rapid price increases are mainly caused by the extremely low mortgage interest rates and the sharply reduced supply of houses for sale. A total of 20,559 transactions took place in December, which is almost 22 percent less than a year earlier.
Real estate association NVM already reported a price increase of 20.7 percent in the fourth quarter compared to a year earlier ten days ago. The NVM bases the figures on the purchase agreements, while the CBS uses the registrations of the purchase deeds at the Land Registry, which are registered about a month and a half later.