Despite the corona crisis, the sales prices of existing owner-occupied homes rose by no less than 10.4 percent last month compared to the same month in 2020. That is the largest increase in almost twenty years, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). and the Land Registry. The number of homes that changed hands also rose sharply.
House prices have been on the rise for years. Since the low point in June 2013, owner-occupied homes have only become more expensive. Although that increase decreased slightly in 2019, it was precisely in the corona year 2020 that prices shot up sharply again and that increase has not yet come to an end. The housing shortage and low interest rates, among other things, are causing a lot of demand.
The plus of 10.4 percent in February is the largest since August 2001, when exactly the same increase was recorded. Incidentally, in the preceding months there was an even greater increase, sometimes even more than 13 percent.
Statistics Netherlands and the Land Registry have also calculated that the average selling price of a home was 334,000 euros last year. It is the highest price since Statistics Netherlands started registering in 1995. When determining the selling prices, only existing owner-occupied homes are considered.
Groningen cheapest, North Holland the most expensive
Sales prices went up last year in almost all municipalities (342 out of 355). Homes for sale are the most expensive in Bloemendaal, with an average value of 863,000 euros. They are cheapest in the Groningen municipality of Pekela, where the average sales price last year was 164,000 euros.
Groningen is the only province where the average price was lower than 250,000 euros last year. Six of the ten cheapest municipalities are in this province: Delfzijl, Oldambt, Pekela, Het Hogeland, Veendam and Appingedam. Seven of the ten most expensive municipalities are in North Holland: Blaricum, Bloemendaal, Laren, Gooise Meren, Landsmeer, Bergen and Heemstede.
Last month, 16,871 homes changed hands. That is 9.4 percent more than in February last year, but considerably less than in January, when it concerned 24,516 transactions. That was 40 percent more than a year earlier.
This extreme increase was probably due to the fact that many young people waited until after the turn of the year to buy a house. Since 1 January, starters under the age of 35 on the housing market do not have to pay transfer tax.
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