Buyers paid for new homes in the last quarter of last year no less than 8.7 percent more than a year earlier. That was less than in the third quarter, when there was an increase of 10 percent. This appears from figures from Statistics Netherlands on Monday. It also appears that in the fourth quarter prices on the Dutch housing market rose faster than in most EU countries.
In the last three months of last year, 10,744 new-build homes were sold. That was 53.5 percent more than in the last quarter of 2019. So an average of 8.7 percent more was paid for those homes, which is roughly the same as the increase for existing owner-occupied homes in that period: 8.8 percent.
In contrast to new-build homes, the price of existing owner-occupied homes rose faster in the fourth quarter than in the previous quarter. That was the fourth time in a row.
Compared to other European countries, prices of owner-occupied homes in the Netherlands rose very rapidly in the fourth quarter. The house price index is used to compare the countries and according to this index house prices (new construction and existing houses together) in Europe rose by an average of 5.7 percent.
The Netherlands is sixth in the ranking of 26 EU countries (Greece is missing). Only in Luxembourg, Denmark, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Poland was the increase somewhat greater. Luxembourg took the cake; homes there became on average 16.7 percent more expensive in the fourth quarter. In no country did prices fall.
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