Netherlands home prices up 4.3% in February

Owner-occupied homes became significantly more expensive again last month. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Land Registry, the price of a house in February was, on average, 4.3 percent higher than in the same month in 2023. Compared to January, prices rose by 1 percent in February.

More homes were also sold last month. The Land Registry reported over 13,810 homes changing hands in February, an increase of 16.5 percent compared to a year earlier. In the first two months of this year, a total of 28,262 homes were sold, over 13 percent more than in that period in 2013.

A house cost an average of 427,279 euros last month. Home prices peaked in July 2022. After that, the trend reversed, and prices fell again for a while. That was due to increased interest rates, which also had an impact on mortgage rates, meaning buyers could borrow less money for a house.

Prices have been rising again since June last year, according to CBS. The high demand for housing is driving prices up, in combination with large wage increases and a lot of leftover savings from the coronavirus period. At the same time, the housing supply is limited.

“The money is there, but the houses are not always,” CBS chief economist Peter Hein van Mulligan summarized. “If things continue at this pace, prices may well return to all-time highs and above the 2022 peak in the coming months.”

One way to reduce the housing shortage is to build more houses. But for some time now, far fewer homes have been built than outgoing Housing Minister Hugo de Jonge wanted, partly because municipalities and provinces have been slow to issue permits for building locations.