There are signs the housing market is beginning to recover, with more properties changing hands and prices stabilising, the real estate agents’ association NVM said on Thursday.

The number of sales rose almost 20% in the second quarter of the year, compared with the first, and the drop in prices was limited to an average 0.3 percentage point, the NVM said.

‘Sales are going up considerably,’ the organisation said. ‘The drop in house prices is also levelling off. We are not there yet but there are signs the market is gradually finding its balance.’

First-time buyers

Although the quarter-on-quarter figures show improvement, sales are still down 5.3% on a year ago. In addition, second quarter sales are always higher than in the first three months of the year, the NVM said.

Earlier this week, RTL news reported that first-time buyers are becoming increasingly active on the housing market.

And in June, ING and Rabobank economists both said confidence in the housing market was increasing as the fall in both sales and prices begins to level off.

The average house sale price in the Netherlands has fallen some 20% since the beginning of the economic crisis. Tens of thousands of home owners are now in negative equity, meaning they paid more for their home than it is worth.

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