The Dutch statistics office CBS and the land registry Kadaster reported on 21 October that existing Dutch homes were worth 2.9% more in September than a year earlier, down from 3.3% in August, and 0.4% less than in August itself. Kadaster registered 20,383 sales during the month, 7.1% fewer than in September 2025, at an average transaction price of €504,658.
On its own that reads as a Dutch housing market running out of steam. Set against the market a Dutch seller is buying into, it reads sharper. Eurostat put Spanish house prices 12.1% higher in the second quarter than a year earlier, and Portuguese ones 16.5% higher. Dutch home prices are still rising, at roughly a quarter of the pace of the Spanish home the same money is meant to buy.
What the September index says about Dutch equity
The price index that CBS and Kadaster publish stood at 156.0 in September, against 100 in 2020, and 17.3% above its previous peak in July 2022. The annual rate has fallen in almost every month since November 2024, when it was 11.9%. It was 7.0% in September last year, 5.4% in January and 3.3% in August. September’s 2.9% is the slowest annual increase since January 2024.
For a household, the difference between those rates is the deposit on the next house. On a home worth €500,000, growth of 2.9% adds €14,500 in a year. At the 11.5% recorded in January 2025 the same home added €57,500. That €43,000 gap is what a Dutch owner has stopped gaining, and it is the money that used to fund a second purchase abroad. The CBS release carries the monthly series back to 2022.
Sales fall 7.1% as the autumn pipeline thins out
Volume moved in the same direction, and it matters more than the headline to anyone who needs cash out of a Dutch house before completing elsewhere. September’s 20,383 registered sales sit inside a year that is still ahead of last: 176,411 homes were sold in the first nine months of 2026, nearly 3% more than over the same stretch of 2025. The recent months are the weak part. The third quarter recorded just under 62,000 sales, 1.7% fewer than a year earlier, and September alone was 7.1% down.
Kadaster registers deeds, which land weeks after a price is agreed and a mortgage is granted. September’s count therefore describes deals struck in the summer, not last week, and the same lag applies to whatever a client is planning now. Dutch buyers who need the proceeds of a Dutch sale before they can complete abroad are exposed to a gap between the two dates that is wider than it was a year ago, and a cross-border chain that assumes a Dutch completion in November can slip into January without anything going wrong. The monthly series sits on Kadaster’s property market dashboard.
Amsterdam adds 1.0% while Friesland adds 5.7%
Third-quarter figures, published in the same CBS release, put the national average 3.4% higher than a year earlier. That is the eleventh consecutive quarter of annual growth, and the fourth in a row in which the rate has come down, from 4.2% in the second quarter, while prices rose 1.0% between the two quarters. The provincial spread is wide. Fryslân and Drenthe led at 5.7%, Overijssel followed at 4.5%, Groningen and Gelderland at 4.4%, and Noord-Holland came last at 1.8% for the sixth quarter running.
The four largest cities say the same thing, and the sales column is worth reading next to the price one.
- The Hague: prices up 4.4%, sales down 7.0%.
- Rotterdam: prices up 2.9%, sales down 6.5%.
- Utrecht: prices up 2.0%, sales up 0.7%.
- Amsterdam: prices up 1.0%, sales down 2.3%.
By property type, two-under-one-roof homes rose 4.5% and detached houses 4.1%, while apartments, the segment most exposed to mortgage costs, managed 2.8%. That matters for the coast: the owners with the biggest budgets for a place in Spain are concentrated in the Randstad, which is exactly where property prices have grown slowest.
How a Dutch home converts into a Spanish one
Eurostat’s house price index, published on 1 October, compares the same quarter across the union and puts the Dutch number for the second quarter at 4.3%. Spain’s 12.1% was second only to Portugal’s 16.5%, and both sit far above the euro area’s 4.0% and the EU’s 4.7%. France was the only large market in the table to fall.
| House price change, second quarter 2026 | On the year | On the quarter |
|---|---|---|
| Portugal | +16.5% | +3.6% |
| Spain | +12.1% | +3.4% |
| European Union | +4.7% | +1.2% |
| Netherlands | +4.3% | +0.5% |
| Italy | +4.0% | +1.7% |
| Euro area | +4.0% | +1.1% |
| France | -0.8% | -0.8% |
The two indices use different methods, so read them as direction rather than decimals. To make it concrete, take a €500,000 Dutch home and a €350,000 Spanish one. In a year of 2.9% Dutch growth and 12.1% Spanish growth, the first becomes €514,500 and the second €392,350. A Spanish home that cost 70% of the Dutch one a year ago now costs 76% of it. A client selling near Utrecht and buying near Valencia is about 9% further behind than a year ago, and nothing in the Dutch release suggests that reverses this quarter.
What agents should tell a Dutch seller this week
Most of the work here is arithmetic, not forecasting. Five points cover what comes up with a Dutch seller who is also a buyer abroad.
- Quote the equity, not the price. A client who hears that Dutch home prices are up 2.9% will assume the budget grew with them; on a €500,000 home it grew by €14,500.
- Put the completion date on the reservation document and leave slack. September sales were 7.1% lower than a year earlier and deeds lag agreements by weeks.
- Ask which province the sale is in. Fryslân at 5.7% and Amsterdam at 1.0% are not the same conversation, and the client usually owns one home, not the average.
- Check the property type. An apartment gained 2.8% in the third quarter while a two-under-one-roof house gained 4.5%, and apartments are the stock most Dutch coastal buyers sell.
- Do not mix NVM and CBS numbers in one calculation. The NVM measures agreed prices through its own member agents, which arrive sooner; CBS and Kadaster measure registered deeds, which cover every sale but later.
What changes for a Dutch seller this autumn
Nothing in this release says the Dutch market is falling. Prices are 17.3% above their 2022 peak and still rising, and sales for the year to September are ahead of last year. What has changed is the pace on both counts: 2.9% growth, a 0.4% monthly dip, and 7.1% fewer September sales. Against Spanish growth of 12.1%, that is a slow squeeze on what a Dutch sale buys abroad.
The next readings are the October index, due in the second half of November, and the NVM’s fourth-quarter figures in January. Until then the useful discipline for anyone advising a Dutch seller is to work in euros at the moment of transfer rather than in the headline percentage, because those two numbers have drifted apart this year and will again.
Questions Dutch sellers are asking this month
How much did Dutch house prices rise in September?
2.9% over the year, and 0.4% less than in August, according to CBS and Kadaster. The average registered sale price in the month was €504,658, and the index stood at 156.0 against 100 in 2020.
Why do the CBS figures differ from the NVM’s?
Different bases. The NVM reports agreed prices from its own member agents, which arrive earlier and cover part of the market. CBS and Kadaster use deeds registered at the land registry, which cover every sale but arrive later. CBS notes the difference in its own release, so a client quoting the NVM and a lender quoting CBS are describing the same market at two stages.
Which Dutch regions gained most in the third quarter?
Fryslân and Drenthe, both at 5.7%, followed by Overijssel at 4.5% and Groningen and Gelderland at 4.4%. Noord-Holland was slowest at 1.8%, and Amsterdam at 1.0% was the weakest of the four largest cities.
Are Dutch house prices falling?
Not nationally. The index slipped 0.4% between August and September and sits below its July level, but it is 3.4% above where it was a year earlier and 17.3% above the 2022 peak. A 0.4% monthly dip is a plateau rather than a correction, which is why the annual figure still reads positive.
Does this change what a Dutch buyer can afford in Spain?
It narrows the gap in the buyer’s favour. With Dutch prices growing 2.9% and Spanish ones 12.1%, the same Dutch home buys a smaller share of a Spanish one than a year ago. For a client buying property in Spain, the earlier the Dutch sale completes, the less that gap widens while they look.
