House prices fell by an average 3.1% in the first three months of this year, while sales were down 43%, according to estate agents organisation NVM on Thursday.

It is the third quarter in a row that house prices have gone down.
Houses are now on sale for an average of 105 days, compared with 84 days in the last three months of last year.
‘Nothing can make it clearer that the housing market is suffering than these figures,’ NVM chairman Ger Hukker told the Volkskrant.
Improvement
Nevertheless, there were signs of a slight improvement in March, Hukker told the the paper.
House prices are now at a similar level to early 2008. The average price paid for a home is now around €276,000. The sharpest drop in prices was recorded in Zutphen, Eindhoven and Groningen while there was a marginal increase in the south of Limburg and in Zwolle.
Meanwhile, the number of home owners behind with their mortgage payments rose 25% in the first three months of this year, according to a foundation which helps home owners. In a normal year, around 2,000 home owners run up arrears of four months or more.