House prices in the Netherlands are continuing to rise but still remain some 14% below their August 2008 peak, the national statistics office CBS said on Friday.

In April, house prices rose by an average of 4.2%, slightly down on March’s rise of 4.3%, which was the biggest in eight years.

A house in the Netherlands now costs about the same, on average, as in 2004, the CBS said.

The CBS figures are at odds with those recently published by the national estate agents’ organisation NWM, which said the average house price in the Netherlands had risen 5.5% to €225,000, and is now just 9% down on 2008’s record.

The NWM warned in April that house prices in Amsterdam had soared by 20% and are now ‘boiling over’.