“Although the market is still very tight, we are getting signs that the market has cooled a little,” Ivor Brevé, director of online estate agents Makelaarsland, told the paper. “Some sellers have been surprised by the lack of interest because they thought it was a seller’s market. But we’ve been noticing it for some three months.”

In particular, buyers are more prepared to offer below the asking price, Brevé said. Over the past three months, 34% of Makelaarsland sales were for below the asking price, compared with 27% in the third quarter and 25% in the second, the Telegraaf said.

“Of course, there are still properties which sell quickly for way more than the asking price, but we have noticed there is clearly less interest in some homes,” he said.

The number of viewings per property has also now dropped to 7.2, compared with nine in the first nine months of last year.

“In Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague, a property was viewed by an average of almost 13 people in the first three quarters of last year. But that has now dropped to over seven,” Brevé said.

Estate agents’ organisation NVM will publish its Q4 house price survey results at the end of this week, which will give a more general indication of how the market is moving.

National statistics agency CBS said last month that house prices had risen nearly 12% year-on-year in November. The CBS figures, which reflect the completed sales of existing properties, put the month-on-month increase at 0.9%.

House prices in the Netherlands have been rising steadily since June 2023 and are now 8.4% higher than they were in July 2022, the previous house price peak.