Amsterdam home prices shoot up 17 percent; Dutch sales through roof

Home prices in Amsterdam increased with a massive 17 percent last year, the biggest increase in all of the Netherlands. The national average was 5 percent, according to figures released by the Dutch Association of Estate Agents and Valuers (NVM) on Thursday, NU reports. In the last quarter of 2015 the average asking price for a home in Amsterdam was 329 thousand euros. The national average was 227 thousand euros. According to the NVM, the recovery of the housing market can also be seen in the amounts bid on homes. In popular Amsterdam neighborhoods, the average bid is 10 percent higher than the asking price, compared to 6 percent in 2014. In total, over all of the Netherlands, NVM estate agents were involved in more than 142,237 home selling transactions in 2015, an increase of 21.7 percent compared to 2014. The number of sales is on a level similar to shortly before the financial crisis in 2008. The association estimates the total number of home sales around 185 thousand. According to the association, the increase can partly be attributed to the low mortgage interest rates. "The mortgage rate is very low, so the net costs in buying a home fell sharply for a few years, while the costs for a rental home wet up sharply", NVM chairman Ger Hukker explained to NU. He added that the fact that you now need to put more of your own money down to buy a house and can borrow less, seem not to have influenced the market at all. The NVM has high hopes for 2016. The association expects that about 200 thousand homes will be sold, an increase in the number of purchases and sales of 8 to 10 percent compared to 2015. The selling price of homes is expected to rise by 3 to 4 percent.