New tenants in property outside the rent-controlled sector are paying on average, 10% more for their homes than they would have done earlier this year, real estate agents association NVM said on Wednesday.

The average rent in a new ‘free sector’ contract is now just over €13 per square metre, or €1,142, the NVM said.

However, there are sharp regional variations. In Amsterdam, for example, new tenants will pay over €20 for a non-rent controlled sector property, a rise of just 1.1% on last year, the NVM said.

The NVM figures conflict with those provided by rental housing platform Pararius, which said last month the rents being agreed between landlords and tenants for new contracts in the non rent-controlled sector have fallen for the first time in six years.

The average square metre price a new tenant is paying has gone down by 0.4% in the third quarter, to an average of €16.56m, Pararius said.

The sharpest drop was in Eindhoven, where new rents are down just over 7%, taking the price of a 60 square metre flat to €824.40. In Amsterdam, new tenants are paying an average of €1,325.40 for the same size, a decline of almost 6% in the second quarter, Pararius said.

The NVM put the difference in figures down to inclusion of more expensive furnished properties as landlords are forced out of the Airbnb by both new rules and the lack of tourists.