Largest price increase in 20 years for owner-occupied homes in the Netherlands
3 augustus 2021
In the second quarter of 2021, prices of existing owner-occupied homes in the Netherlands again increased by no less than 13%, compared to the same period last year. Prices of existing owner-occupied homes were even 14.6% higher in June than one year earlier, making it the largest price increase since December 2000. This is revealed by research into the price development of existing private owner-occupied homes in the Netherlands by CBS (Statistics Netherlands) and Kadaster (The Netherlands' Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency).
It is the second quarter in a row that house prices have risen by double digits, since house prices already increased by 10.3% in the first three months of this year. The price increase between the second quarter of last year and this year has occurred throughout the Netherlands. House prices rose by double digits in all provinces, although Flevoland experienced the fastest growth with a plus of 16.8%.
In the four largest cities in the Netherlands, Utrecht saw the largest price increase. Here, prices for existing owner-occupied homes increased by 14% compared to a year earlier. In The Hague and Rotterdam, the prices of owner-occupied homes increased by 13.2% and 12.9% , respectively. The price increase in Amsterdam was the smallest, but still significant at 7.5%.
Compared to the first quarter of 2021, the number of transactions in the four big cities fell sharply. After a record number of sales in the first quarter, the number of transactions in Amsterdam and Utrecht declined sharply in the second quarter, nearing the level of 2020. The number of residential transactions in Rotterdam and The Hague is also back at the level of before Q1 2021. In total, 52,787 houses were sold in the Netherlands during the months of April, May and June, a decrease of 3.9% compared to the same period last year. Compared to the first quarter of 2021, transactions were 20.8% less. This may be related to the changes in the Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) that came into effect at the beginning of this year. Until March, all buyers under the age of 35 could still buy a house without paying RETT. From April, the normal rate of 2% of the purchase price will again apply to houses above € 400,000. For this reason, many buyers probably brought their purchase forward.
NVM recently recorded an increase of housing prices of nearly 20% for the second quarter of 2021 and an average sales price of € 410,000. There were almost 54% fewer homes for sale (15,491 in total) compared to one year earlier.
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