House prices fell 2.1% on average in March but were up 2.6% in Amsterdam, the national statistics office said on Tuesday.

The March drop in average prices is larger than the 1.7% recorded in February, the CBS said. House prices are now back at around the same level as in November 2002 and have fallen more than 20% since the start of the economic crisis in 2008.

Nevertheless, the drop was 1.5% over the first quarter, and that is the lowest reduction in three years. There was also a 25% rise in housing transactions in the first quarter.

In Amsterdam, house prices have risen 2.6%, and they were also up marginally in The Hague, the CBS figures show. In Rotterdam they were down only very slightly.