House prices continue upward trend with nearly 10% rise in May

House prices in the Netherlands rose by almost 10% in May compared to a year earlier, and were up 0.6% on April, according to figures from national statistics agency CBS on Monday.

The increase pushed the average sale price of a house or apartment to just under €472,000, the CBS said. The figures are based on completed transactions reported to the Kadaster land registry and typically lag the statistics from estate agents' organization NVM by several weeks.

“The continuing growth is striking given the economic uncertainties,” Kadaster housing expert Matthieu Zuidema told news website Nu.nl. Dutch economic growth dropped to 0.1% in the first quarter of the year.

Rabobank housing market economist Nic Vrieselaar told Nu.nl that prices are still climbing and it is becoming even harder to buy a home. “Households earning 1.5 times the average wage are missing out,” he said. “You will soon need double the average income, plus a contribution from rich parents.”

Prices, he said, will keep rising due to high demand and a shortage of new housing construction.

The government aims to build 100,000 new homes a year but has fallen far short of this since the target was brought in some eight years ago.

The CBS also said almost 20,000 homes changed hands last month, an increase of 11.5% on May last year. In the first five months of this year, 90,000 houses and apartments were sold — a rise of 16% compared to the same period in 2023.

Many of the apartments currently for sale in the major cities are former rental properties, being offloaded by owners keen to avoid rent control restrictions as they become empty.

Once this wave of sales is over, the supply will shrink even further, Vrieselaar said. “If we are talking about the availability of owner occupied homes for first time buyers,” he said, “we are extremely pessimistic about the housing market.”