Just 6,260 Dutch homes changed hands in January, a drop of nearly 12% on a year ago and 64% down on December, the land registry office Kadaster said on Monday.

Sales surged in December as buyers sought to beat the introduction of new rules for mortgage tax breaks. And January is traditionally slow in terms of property transactions.

The sale of detached homes was hardest hit – down 29% – while corner homes were hardly affected.

Sales were down across the country apart from in Flevoland, where the number rose nearly 10%.

Terraced homes

Meanwhile, research by European statistics office Eurostat shows the Dutch are more likely than any other EU nationality to live in a terraced or row house.

Six out of 10 Dutch households occupy a terraced home and just 20% live in a flat.

‘A terraced home is part of our culture,’ Delft University housing researcher Kees Dol told the Volkskrant on Monday. ‘There is a market for flats, but most people want a home with a garden.’ In addition, flats in the Netherlands are usually fairly small, he said.