House prices continue to rise but the increase is down slightly on previous months and estate agents report fewer people are going to viewings.

The national statistics agency CBS said on Wednesday that house prices were up 18.8% in May year-on-year, compared with a 19.7% increase in April, in a continuation of the trend which started in January.

Fewer people are also turning up to view property that comes on the market. ‘A couple of months ago the phone rang red hot and people were fighting to make an appointment,’ Dagmar Daae, of Molenbeek Makelaars in Utrecht, told broadcaster NOS. ‘Now there are often spaces left on the second day.’

Nevertheless, the market is still crazy if you compare it to a few years ago, Steven Lagerweij from estate agents group Vivantes told NOS. Vivantes operates in 30 cities nationwide.

Houses that require a lot of work are more likely to be out of favour, partly because of the cost of renovations and the long waiting lists for workmen, he said.

Fewer sales

In total, 75,644 homes changed hands in the first five months of this year, down almost 26% on the same period in 2021.

‘House prices are not rising as fast as they were but that does not mean it is easier to buy a house,’ CBS chief economist Peter Hein van Mulligen told news website Nu.nl.

‘Prices are levelling off but houses don’t get cheaper just because they are not rising in price so quickly.’