The average price of homes in the Netherlands fell 1.8% to €233,000 last year, according to new figures from the real estate agents association NVM.

The drop was 2.5% between the third and fourth quarter, the NVM said.
‘This is the first time since 1990 that there was a noticeable fall in house prices,’ it said in a statement.
Only one in six homes put up for sale found a new owner in the final three months of the year, compared with one in four during the previous quarter.
More expensive homes in particular were hard to shift and prices in this category will continue to come under pressure in 2009, the NVM said. Prices fell hardest in Amsterdam and the south of Limburg.
Over the past 25 years, Dutch house prices have risen on average by between 6% and 7% a year.