House prices may have been falling in recent months, but the official value of Dutch private property soared 16.4% this year because calculations are based on last year’s figures.

The average WOZ value of a Dutch home this year is €369,000, national statistics agency CBS said on Wednesday. The biggest increase – 26% – was in Lelystad. Amsterdam had the strongest rise of the four big cities at 19%, followed by Utrecht at 17.6%.

The WOZ value of a property is used to determine local and other property-related taxes.

In money terms, the most expensive Dutch local authority area by WOZ value is Bloemendaal in Noord-Holland province, at €932,000. Pekela in Groningen has the lowest average figure, at €194,000.  

Earlier it emerged that the number of homeowners protesting about the official valuation of their property reached a record high this year. 

Almost 600,000 homeowners have made an official complaint about the WOZ value of their homes, three times the 2022 figure. 

The government has since said it plans to toughen up the rules covering specialist bureaus that fight official property valuations on behalf of home owners.

Councils don’t have to pay the process costs, which are upwards of €600, if home owners protest about the valuation themselves. Valuations are based on general price developments as well as the sale price of similar nearby properties. 

In 2021, 51% of requests for a lower valuation were processed through an outside agency, according to research by the valuation monitoring body Waarderingskamer. On average, 40% of the protests succeed, resulting in valuations going down by an average of 9%.

House prices were some 20% higher in January 2022 compared with the year-earlier period. They have been falling since last summer, but there are signs of a slight uptick in recent months.