House prices rose 1.4% in the second quarter of this year, compared with the first three months, and the number of homes sold was up 26%, says estate agents’ organisation NVM.

‘Consumers see to have survived the first shock and are no longer putting off buying,’ NVM chairman Ger Hukker told the Volkskrant.
Nevertheless, prices are still 5.6% lower than they were a year ago and the number of transactions is still trailing by 33%, he said.
And the NVM says it still assumes prices will go down by 5% over 2009 as a whole, given the forecast increase in unemployment.
On average, a house is taking 182 days, or six months, to sell, compared with 105 days a year ago.