Home prices still rising, number of transactions stagnating

In June, existing owner-occupied homes in the Netherlands were 14.6 percent more expensive than in the same month last year - the biggest price increase since December 2000, Statistics Netherlands reported on Thursday. The number of transactions on the owner-occupied housing market is stagnating.

The average owner-occupied home in the Netherlands now costs 373 thousand euros - 70 percent more than in June 2013, when the housing market reached its lowest point after the 2008 financial crisis. 

Since June 2013, home prices in the Netherlands have been increasing. The price increase weakened somewhat in 2019, but picked up again in 2020.

The Land Registry recorded 17,707 home sales in June, about the same as a year earlier. Over the entire second quarter, the number of transactions declined. About 53 thousand homes changed hands last quarter, 3 percent less than a year earlier.

But due to a strong first quarter, the first half of the year still saw more home sales than in the same six months last year. In the first half of this year, 119.414 homes changed ownership, 12 percent more than in the same period of 2020.