House prices dropped 0.5 percent

Prices for houses in the Netherlands have dropped by some 0.5 percent in the last year, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has reported. The Bureau said in a release today that “prices for owner-occupied dwellings were lower in January 2014 than in January 2013.” It said the price drop is “less substantial” than in December, when residential property prices fell by 3.8 percent. Although prices of existing owner-occupied homes were still below the level of the same month last year, the price level has remained fairly stable over the past seven months. In January this year, prices of existing owner-occupied dwellings were at the same level as eleven years ago. They were 20.3 percent below the record level registered in August 2008. In January 2014, 8,905 homes were sold, an increase of 42.3 percent over last year. CBS said that apparently many house buyers chose to avoid new regulations – set in the new mortgage regulations of January 1 2013- by taking out their mortgage prior to that date. The Bureau said that as a result there was a lower demand for residential property in January 2013.