Record house price rises in September

The search facility is intended for real estate professionals such as notaries and estate agents. Photo: DutchNews.nl
Photo: DutchNews.nl

House price rises have once again broken new records as fewer houses changed hands and sale prices rose by almost a fifth year-on-year in the third quarter this year.

According to the CBS Dutch statistics office and Kadaster land registry, from July to the end of September 13.4% fewer homes changed hands than in the same period a year earlier, with average prices up 17.5%.

The rise in the month of September (18.5%) was the largest since July 2000, according to a separate CBS study. Prices have been on the up since June 2013, when the market was at a deep point, and the CBS house price index was at its highest point ever last month.

Compared to June 2013, prices in September this year were 81% higher. As in recent months, there were significantly fewer transactions than a year previously. However, in the whole of 2021 so far, almost 3% more houses in total have changed hands than in 2020, with 173,289 registered sales.

The DNB Dutch national bank has expressed serious concerns that house prices are too high and people, especially first-time buyers, are taking on too much debt, while Dutch banks are not holding enough in reserves.

The Netherlands has the highest percentage of mortgage debt in the European Union, and the DNB this month called for stricter borrowing standards, and scrapping tax breaks for all home owners and first time buyers in order to achieve ‘a more balanced housing market’.

‘In a state of gridlock, it is characterised by poor accessibility, risky borrowing behaviour, supply shortages and large unwarranted discrepancies between owning a home and renting one in the non-subsidised rental sector,’ it said.

Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nl.

We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day.

Make a donation