Strongest price increase for owner-occupied homes in 15 years

Existing homes for sale were 7.3 percent more expensive in March than in the same month a year earlier. That is the largest price increase in 15 years, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and the Land Registry said Friday.

Housing prices peaked in August 2008. Then prices fell to a low in June 2013. Since then, there has been an upward trend. Compared to the peak, the price level is 8.6 percent lower. Compared to the trough, prices are on average 16.4 percent higher.

The average price level of existing owner-occupied houses in March is about the same as in April 2006.

CBS and Kadaster further noted that in The Hague, too, prices of owner-occupied houses in the first quarter were almost back to pre-crisis levels. However, this still makes The Hague the only one of the four major cities where this is not quite the case.

In the first quarter, in all provinces, houses were more expensive than a year earlier. On average, the price increase was 6.8 percent. This is the largest increase after the second quarter of 2002. In the Randstad provinces of North Holland (10.5 percent), South Holland (7.4 percent) and Utrecht (8.6 percent), the price increase was more than average in the Netherlands.