One in seven apartments offered for sale was previously on the market at a higher price, according to research by housing platform Huispedia. In Amsterdam and Maastricht, the figure is even higher at one in five.

On average, sellers are knocking €37,000 off the price but are not always declaring the discount, presenting the property instead as a “new” offer, Huispedia said.

“There needs to be more transparency about this,” director Maxim Bours said. “If you know the price of a property has been reduced, you are in a better position to negotiate, and you can make a lower bid. In many cases, you can even offer below the asking price.”

In one case, an apartment in Groningen went through five price cuts before finally selling for €347,500, the research showed. A detached home in Hilversum was sold for €845,000 below the original asking price.

In the last quarter of 2024, almost 14% of apartments went down in price, while just over 11% of houses were reduced. Buyers who were interested in a discounted property overbid by an average of just 0.3 percentage point of the new sales price, and half of them offered a lower price than advertised.

Bours says the discounts and the lower overbidding are further indications that the housing market may be cooling down, although this is likely to be only temporary.

As yet, there are no signs that more homes will come onto the market in the short term. Last year, the government missed its target of 100,000 new homes by 18,000, and of these, just 69,000 were new builds, the CBS said on Thursday.

The other 13,000 were created by splitting larger properties into smaller units and repurposing existing buildings, such as old office complexes.

In addition, 11,800 homes were demolished, so the net increase was just 70,000.

Housing minister Mona Keijzer has warned that the 100,000 target will not be met for a couple of years while cuts in red tape and other new measures take effect.

However, according to international research by Ipsos, 77% of the Dutch do not have faith in the government when it comes to housing, the highest percentage in the 30-country survey. Some 69% also think the government should be doing more to solve the problem, again the highest percentage.