The temperature of the Dutch housing market is cooling, with more properties for sale and a year-on-year price drop in some of the Netherlands’ most exclusive towns and villages, according to new estate agent figures.

The latest figures presented by NVM, the largest estate agent association, showed a median sale price of more than €500,000 – rising year-on-year by 3.9%, just over the rate of inflation.

But price rises are slowing and in its first breakdown of prices per municipality, in the Netherlands’ most expensive towns Laren, Baricum and Heemstede, they apparently fell.

In Blaricum, for instance, the average sale price among NVM agents dropped from €1,290,200 to €1,162,900 – a slump of 10%. The average price in Heemstede fell by 3% to just under €800,000 and in Laren by 2% to just over €1 million.

“All in all, it is a less pressured market but one that still has problems with affordability,” said Lana Goutsmits-Gerssen, chairwoman of the NVM’s housing group. “According to a survey of estate agents, buyers have more choice and a little more time to decide. The number of viewings and bids has gone down. But there is still a systematic shortage.”

While certain areas and price brackets are still hot, more properties are available as former landlords sell up, and buyers have more choice. The total number of sales in 2025 was just over 166,000, making it a top year for the estate agent sector.

“Price rises have been levelling off in the last three months,” said Goutsmits-Gerssen at a press presentation in Utrecht. “Things are slowing down.

“Compared to a year ago, the price trend is up 3.9% and our expectation is, as long as the supply remains high due to landlords selling off and there are no major macroeconomic and geopolitical changes, that annual price rises will continue to decrease at least moderately.”

People on the same salary can borrow slightly less this year, and there is less room to borrow more than 100% of a house’s official value for energy-saving measures. However, transfer tax for investors will drop from 10.4% to 8%.

In some areas of the Netherlands, overall prices and square metre prices dropped in the last three months of 2024, with some mortgage brokers reporting that while first-time buyers are active, others are in “hibernation”. In greater Amsterdam, the square metre price fell by 0.3% in the last three months of 2025, for instance.

Prices were “relatively stable” in the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht, said the NVM, but other municipalities such as Amstelveen showed strong rises.

The NVM data, which is seen as an early indication of trends in the official figures, found the number of first-time buyers has increased “significantly” to almost half of transactions. While there is more choice, homes still typically sell in just under a month – with around seven viewings and three offers.

Goutsmits-Gerssen said the wave of former landlords selling their properties due to new rent controls and property taxes is expected to continue until June 2026, when the remaining two-year contracts will end. But the trend is leading to problems in areas such as Limburg, where Nato employees are struggling to find lodgings.

Jack van Oppen, estate agent at OPS Advies, said he saw many freelancers selling properties they had bought to rent out as their pension pot, causing knock-on effects for international workers in Brunssum. “Nato personnel typically stay for two or three years, but you see that the sale of rental homes means they cannot find a house,” he said. “Nato is saying: there just isn’t anything.”

The Netherlands is trying to tackle an estimated housing shortage of around 400,000 homes, but new-build challenges include rising construction costs, a lack of foreign investment and matching the supply to demand.

“If you build homes for older people, with a garden, they will leave their over-large home for a people who want a family house,” said Goutsmits-Gerssen. “At the end of the chain, a first-time buyer gets a home. So we also say: focus on building for seniors.”