Estate agents in the west of the Netherlands are to lower the tax on conveyancing fees from 6% to 3% in order to stimulate the stagnating housing market, reports Tuesday’s Telegraaf.

According to the estate agents’ association NVM, the cost of the reduction will either be shared by the agent and the seller or be passed on in its entirety to the seller. The NVM expects the move to be adopted throughout the country if it proves successful, says the Telegraaf.
The tax office, however, is warning that buyers would do well to check with their tax office before accepting the reduction to avoid any ‘unpleasant surprises’.
Other estate agents are coming up with novel ways to encourage people to buy houses, says the paper. A farmhouse in Drenthe is being offered with the first three years free of charge and an estate agent in Almere is offering one year free. A spokesman told the Telegraaf: ’21 sellers have joined the scheme’.
But Anton van den Bol of Hypotheek Visie, the country’s second largest estage agents, told the paper ‘lowering the price would have the same effect’.