Growing pessimism among home seekers as Dutch housing prices continue to rise

People who are house hunting have less confidence in a successful outcome of their search for a home. There are not enough homes on the market, and the prices are rising, leading to pessimism, housing website Funda said.

Confidence from home seekers dropped by 14 points in the second quarter of the year compared to the previous three months, an index that Funda uses to measure the mood regarding the housing market. The confidence of home seekers was 22 points lower than that of the same period last year.

The tightness in the housing market is a major culprit and has caused unprecedentedly high house prices in the past quarter, the NVM reported last week. The real estate agents' association and major shareholder of Funda calculated that the average home price has increased on a yearly basis by 13,6 percent.

According to Joost Dop, CEO of Funda, the affordability of owning a home "is increasingly under pressure." At the same time, Funda said, based on a survey, one in three respondents think it is customary to offer 10 to 20 percent over the asking price.

Unlike the pessimistic home seekers, homeowners are increasingly optimistic about the housing market. They were more positive about the opportunities of selling their home in the last quarter. According to Funda, their confidence has risen for five quarters in a row.

A shift has been noticeable in this. A larger group of homeowners want to buy a new home first before they try to sell their current home. Around 30 percent indicated in the last quarter that they wanted to buy first, compared to 19 percent a year ago.

Funda claims that homeowners over 55 are an important group of home sellers. They usually own relatively large homes. According to the housing site, inquiries from these people show that if they were to buy a new house, they would like to live a little smaller but also like to have a house with a garden.