Open House Day: 6,500 homes open to home seekers

More homes participated in Saturday's Open House Day of real estate agent organization NVM than last spring. However, the number of homes open to potential homebuyers is still significantly lower than a year ago.

According to housing website Funda, some 6,500 homes can be viewed on Saturday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. At the previous Open House Day in April, the NVM counted over 5,600 participating homes. More than 9,000 homes participated in the edition a year ago.

Brokers blame the exceptionally low number of six months ago on the limited supply in the housing market. The NVM noticed that there were far fewer homes for sale and said at the time that it would evaluate how it wanted to fill the next Open House Day.

Ultimately, it was decided not to change the tradition, as there is a great need for an Open House Day, says a spokesperson. The fact that the demand for houses is still high is also evident from the number of transactions. The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) recently counted more than 11 percent more houses sold than last year around this time.

For example, just over 6,000 newly built homes were sold in the second quarter of 2024. This is 30 percent more than the previous quarter and almost 84 percent more than a year earlier. In addition, the sales price for a new-build home remained almost unchanged compared to the second quarter of 2023. However, existing homes became more expensive as a result, according to CBS.

Dutch house prices have meanwhile risen to a new record, which seems to be causing the housing market to overheat again. Another factor is that wages have risen sharply recently, which means people have more money to spend on a new home. Many mortgage providers have also lowered their interest rates.

The NVM does not dare to say in advance how many visitors the event on Saturday will attract. "That always depends a lot on the weather," it says. Last time, Open House Day attracted over 35,000 house hunters. A year ago, when more houses participated, 55,000 visitors were counted.