Home sales dropping as house prices continue to soar

For the second consecutive quarter, the number of existing homes sold in the Netherlands was lower than the previous year, dropping 13.4 percent. Home prices continued to increase, climbing 17.5 percent on average compared to the third quarter of 2020, Statistics Netherlands reported.

In the third quarter of this year, the Land Registry recorded 53,875 residential transactions - 13.4 percent less than the same quarter last year. In the first three quarters of the year, 173,000 existing homes were sold. Despite decreases in the second and third quarter, that is still 2.7 percent higher than in the first three quarters of 2020. It is also the second-highest number of homes sold in the first three quarters since the stats office started keeping track of this in 1995.

The number of home sales dropped in all provinces in the third quarter. The decrease was smallest in Flevoland at -6.9 percent and largest in Overijssel at -20.4 percent. All provinces also saw the price of existing homes increase by at least 15 percent. Flevoland recorded the highest increase (21.9 percent) for the fourth quarter in a row.

Of the four largest cities in the Netherlands, only Utrecht saw the prices of existing owner-occupied homes increase by more than the national average. In Utrecht, homes were 18.9 percent more expensive in the third quarter. Home prices in The Hague increased 17.3 percent, in Rotterdam 15.3 percent, and in Amsterdam 14.9 percent.

Rotterdam saw the most significant decrease in home sales at -18.5 percent, followed by Utrecht (-18.2 percent), The Hague (-14.5 percent), and Amsterdam (-13.3 percent).