Home sales in Netherlands start showing declining trend

The number of existing homes sold in the Netherlands started slowly declining over the past months, after a peak of 25,280 homes sold in December last year, Financieele Dagblad reports based on figures from the Land Registry.

In November a total of 19,647 homes were sold, the Land Registry announced on Monday. That is an increase of 7.6 percent compared to November 2016, but a decline of 2.5 percent compared to October 2017. This slight decline has been noticeable since September of this year. In August 20,780 homes were sold, in September 20,632 and in October 20,143. The Land Registry counts home sales when the transfer of ownership occurred. 

Compared to November last year, the number of homes sold last month increased in almost all provinces. Flevoland saw the biggest increase with 30.9 percent. Home sales only decreased in the provinces of  Noord-Holland and Utrecht, with 1.1 percent and 6.1 percent respectively. 

In November there were 141 executive auctions, a 36.2 percent decrease compared to the 221 auctions a year ago. The number of mortgages registered increased by 13.5 percent compared to November 2016, and rose by 2.3 percent compared to October 2017.