Almost 40% of Amsterdam housing is currently selling for above the asking price and in some areas within the ring road 60% of homes go for higher prices, according to housing sector research group Calcasa.

In the Netherlands as a whole, just 7% of properties are sold for more than the asking price, Calcasa’s research shows.

The average Amsterdam home now costs more than in 2008, when house prices hit their maximum and this will continue into the future, commercial director Rogier van der Hijden said.

A spokesman for the Amsterdam real estate agents’ association NVA told news agency ANP that the market is ‘totally overstretched’. Some people are giving up their hunt for a home because there is so little stock available, he said.

Just one in three properties in Amsterdam is owner-occupied and social housing accounts for the bulk of the housing outside the city centre. Low interest rates have also encouraged more people to buy their own home.