The market for new homes is improving and developers expect full-year sales to reach over 20,000 this year.

So far, sales are up considerably on 2013, when 13,500 new homes were bought, according to figures from the property developers’ association Neprom.

Provisional second quarter figures show just over 5,000 new homes were bought between April and June.

Nevertheless, there are still sharp differences between the regions.

Gelderland, Noord-Brabant and the central Randstad area booked the biggest growth. However in national terms, sales are still at around half the level of 2008 and in Groningen sales are 80% down on pre-crisis levels.