House prices went up by 6.7% in December, compared with a year ago, which was the strongest rise since 2002, the national statistics office CBS said on Friday.

In Rotterdam house prices have now outstripped their August 2008 high, the CBS said. Amsterdam and Utrecht broke the pre crisis level earlier. The figures are based on information gathered by the land registry organisation Kadaster.

Nearly 214,800 houses changed hands last year in 2016, the highest number ever.

Last week, Dutch real estate agency association NVM said house prices in the Netherlands are now almost back at their pre-crisis levels.

The average price for a home is now €248,000, which is 20% up on the low point reached in 2013 and just 2% below the record high recorded in August 2008, the NVM said.

Offices

Meanwhile, property advisory group Dynamis said on Friday that a record volume of empty office space had been converted to housing last year.

In total, 750,000 square metres of offices was given a new use and some 92% was turned into homes. The rest became hotels and shops.

Arnhem leads the way in conversions, Dynamis said, followed by The Hague, Apeldoorn, Eindhoven, Amsterdam and Nieuwegein. So much empty office space has now been turned into housing that only difficult projects on industrial estates remain, Dynamis said.