Dutch housing prices make largest single-year leap since 2005

Prices for existing homes in the Netherlands increased by 4.9 percent in July, the biggest price increase in almost 12 years, according to Statistics Netherlands and the Land Registry. Housing prices in the Netherlands reached a peak in August 2008, before the financial crisis brought them back to a low point in June 2013. Since then the housing market started recovering again and there's been a rising trend in prices. In July house prices in the country were still 12.8 percent below the peak in August 2008. They were, however, 11.1 percent above the low point in 2013. In July 2016 home prices were at about the same level as in March 2005. Last week the Land Registry announced that the number of homes sold in July was 7.1 percent above the same month in 2015.