Dutch housing market slipping

Dutch housing market no longer a treat as economy teeters toward a recession

(From The Shanghai Daily)
Eighteen months after real estate markets in Spain and Ireland began to sputter, the Netherlands is following suit. Prices of properties including 17th-century Amsterdam canal-side townhouses dropped in the third quarter for the first time since 1980 after doubling in the last decade.
The boom has left the Dutch saddled with the highest level of mortgage debt in the euro region just as the economy slides into recession. As recently as the second quarter, the Netherlands was the only euro-area country among 11 surveyed by the Global Property Guide with rising property prices.
Average prices slipped 0.3 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, according to Nieuwegein-based NVM, the Dutch Realtors Association. In the Amsterdam region, where narrow houses loom over canals winding through the city center, prices fell 4 percent to an average 265,000 euros.

Marktinformatie woningmarkt
De NVM publiceert elk kwartaal de woningmarktcijfers. De kwartaalcijfers geven inzicht in de ontwikkeling van de woningmarkt in de 76 woningmarktgebieden. Voor vijf types woningen wordt inzicht gegeven in transactieprijzen, prijzen per vierkante meters, aantallen verkochte woningen en totale omzet.

In September 2008, the price index for owner-occupied houses was 2.5% up on a year earlier, according to Central Bureau of Statistics. When adjusted for inflation, the index fell 0.5%. (Source: Global Property Guide Netherlands)