Dutch house prices rose 2.3% in April compared with the year-earlier period, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday. House prices have now been rising steadily for over a year.

The average price of a home in the Netherlands is now back at its September 2003 level, but is still 18% below the price when the market was at its peak in August 2008.

The number of sales is also rising steadily. Almost 18% more houses were sold in April than in April 2014.

However, mortgage advisory group De Hypotheekshop said on Thursday that mortgage rates are also beginning to go up, for the first time in two years.

The average rate for a 10-year fixed-rate mortgage with a national mortgage guarantee is now 2.41%, a fractional rise of 0.02 percentage points, the company says in its weekly review.

‘A number of mortgage providers have put up their rates in response to the sharply rising capital market interest rates,’ the company says.

Nevertheless, the average rates for variable, five-year and 20-year mortgages continues to fall.