The number of housing transactions in May was down 18% on a year ago but up 27% on April, according to land registry office Kadaster on Monday.

The figures also show the number of newly registered mortgages fell by 25% compared with May 2012 but were up 18% on April.

However, the improvement on April does not mean the housing market is recovering, the Financieele Dagblad said.

A similar situation was seen in April and this is the effect of new mortgage rules which were introduced in January filtering through, the paper said.