The number of houses changing hands in April, May and June was down 8.4% on the same period in 2007, according to figures published by estate agents organisation LMV on Wednesday evening.

‘The fall we saw in May and June is much greater than expected,’ said LMV chairman Ed Van den Bijl in the Volkskrant. Van den Bijl said rising mortgage interest rates, the downturn in economic growth and a lack of consumer confidence were behind the change.
House prices rose 2.8% over the period, the LMV said.
On Thursday, however, the country’s biggest estate agents umbrella group NVM said
the price of the average house in the Netherlands rose 3.2% to €252,000 in the second quarter of 2008.
And the number of houses sold was down 2% year on year, yet up 13% on the previous quarter, the NVM said. The NVM said house prices remain high because of the structural shortage of housing.