Home prices in the Netherlands increased by 9.7% in May

Existing owner-occupied homes were 9.7 percent more expensive in May than in the same month last year, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Land Registry reported. The average home cost 471,875 euros last month.

The price increase was slightly less than in April, when an existing owner-occupied home became over 10 percent more expensive annually. Compared to that month, prices were 0.6 percent higher in May.

Home prices peaked in July 2022. They then fell a bit, only to rise again from June 2023. According to CBS, prices are now an average of 11.7 percent higher than during the peak in July 2022.

The rising home prices are partly due to demand being much greater than the tight supply. The falling mortgage interest rate and rising incomes also played a role, making it possible for people to spend more.

The Land Registry reported that 19,614 homes changed owners in May. That is 11.5 percent more than a year earlier. In the first five months of this year, there were 90,003 housing transactions, an increase of 16 percent on an annual basis.

CBS reported earlier this month that existing owner-occupied homes became more expensive in almost all Dutch municipalities in the first quarter of this year. Prices rose most in Bunnik from January to March, by 19.8 percent. Waddinxveen (18.7 percent) followed, then Gouda (18 percent). Home prices only fell in the municipalities of Texel and Vught.